priscilla thompson in shreveport, louisiana. thank you very much. >>> up next, lake charles, louisiana, is being battered by heavy rains and winds, and at the moment, right in the middle of the eye of category 4, hurricane laura. tegory 4, hurricane laura. finding dental insurance plans can be confusing, confusing like, "why am i sitting here in a hospital gown waiting to get my eyes checked?" ready? absolutely not. see, having the wrong coverage can mean you get the wrong care, or you're paying more than you have to. that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. they make sure you have the right coverage, health insurance, medicare, and yes, dental too. wow, think that's painful? wait 'til he gets the bill. a cavity can cost as much as $350 and a root canal, whoa. but with healthmarkets, for less than a dollar a day, you can save a bundle every time you go to the dentist. exams, cleanings, and x-rays, those are covered at 100%. that sounds free to me. plus healthmarkets has plans with coverage for fillings, crown

let's go to priscilla thompson live in shreveport, louisiana. you're in the outer bands of the storm, heading your way at the moment. so a little quieter for this hour at least. >> reporter: that's right, richard. we're getting some light rain here, but those impacts are going -- we'll see more of those impacts hooer in the next few hours. we're about 160 miles north of lake charles, so awaiting some of that. the biggest concerns here are going to be those high winds, reports up to 60-mile-per-hour winds. and also that heavy, heavy rain that could lead to some flooding. you see the red river behind me, which separates shreveport. it has been known to flood in the past, impacting homes and shutting down a highway here. so we'll be watching for those impacts very, very closely. but this is one of the placest where those folks who were evacuating from lake charles came. so folks are hunkered down here in shelters, wait thing out. >> all right. we are watching hurricane laura as you are, as it's headed your way, as you said, very shortly to come and

nbc's priscilla thompson is there.e you hearing from parents dropping off their children this morning? >> reporter: nervous but hopeful, craig. that's what so many parents have said to me this morning. that may be in part because of the parents had a choice in the matter. duval county gave them the option to return students to in-person learning or they could choose out of two virtual options, one of which would allow students to start the year virtually but come back into the traditional classroom when parents feel like it's safe. most of the parents that i've spoken with today have chosen to send their students back to the classroom. i think that's important context because i did speak to one mom who is a frontline worker. she felt like she was too emotional to speak on camera. as soon as i asked her, what was it like dropping off your student today, she began to cry. she said it's been incredibly scary for her, unlike any other first day of school, that's for sure. because she doesn't know what's going to happen. i

that's where we find nbc's priscilla thompson live for us there. priscilla, what's the latest?rte >> there still so much work to be done on the ground here. i want you to take a look here. that was 150-mile-per-hour winds that swept through this area, and we've seen so many trees like this one completely uprooted. and landing on houses like this one. you can see that entire garage is pretty much the roof destroyed. it also hit part of the main house and we spoke to the woman who's actually inside of here and this is a family home that has been passed on through generations. it's a place where the family gathers, and so that's very, very devastating. but recovery efforts are underway. we've seen folks trying to cut those trees, to clear the roads. tons of utility workers with those bucket trucks trying to get that electricity restored. but even so, there are around half a million people without electricity, more than 200,000 without water. and officials have said that it will take some time. this recovery, not days, but possibly up to a week, if not longer. and we actually heard

joining us now, nbc's priscilla thompson in lake charles, louisiana. of course that area hit so hard. priscilla, ahead of the press' briefing what are you hearing from people on the ground there as they work on these rebuilding efforts? >> lindsey, folks are not waiting on that fema aid to get to work here. i want you to check this out. these are new electrical poles that are going to be going up here in order to help restore some of those power outages. roughly half a million people here without power. and these guys have been hard at work all morning working to get that done. it is not just the utility workers. we have also seen residents as we have driven around this city, out with their chain saws working to clear the streets and help their neighbors clear debrises, put tarps on the roofs that have been destroyed as a result of this hurricane. you really see the coming together of a commune. you know, this isn't the first time that louisiana and communities like this one have faced this. today is actually the 15th anniversary of hurricane katrina. h

priscilla thompson, thank you so much. >>> let's go now to new video of skirmishes between police and protesters. this is in san diego. you see the flash point there? that's when police officers were chasing and then detaining one protester. the shooting of jacob blake touching off protests in denver. the largest protest was at the lincoln memorial on the 57th anniversary of dr. martin luther king jr.'s march on washington. solidarity demonstrations fanned out across the country after not just the blake shooting, but the killing of two black lives matter protesters. shaquille brewster is joining us from kenosha, wisconsin. shaq, welcome to you. these events unfolded pretty quickly. tell me what's going on there today and what are officials doing to try to get justice for those victims? >> well, alex, things have taken a turn. we saw earlier this week that led to some destruction but now what why your seeing are block from block, people coming out with paint brushes, paint cans and painting murals across the city. you're seeing this not only here but in the downtown area, business by b

. >> priscilla thompson, thank you so much for the latest from louisiana. >>> let's turn to the latest from the biden campaign. everything is virtual nowadays, but it seems to be working for both sides. >> reporter: that's right, richard. we're seeing a little bit of shift like you said a moment ago between the dnc ending the other week, rnc ending last week, moving to the 60 plus day until november until folks can get to the polls and start voting. what you're seeing today is a look at how the virtual campaign trail really will shape out. joe biden gave remarks to the national guard today, and kamala harris was doing a round table at a q&a type session with latino small business owners in south florida. florida such a swing state and a critical state to be virtually in during this pandemic. but i want to zoom out a little bit because joe biden just a couple of days ago, richard, had mentioned that he would be hitting the trail physically starting after labor day. and it's something that i think we've been talking a lot about. we see mike pence on the trail. we see donald trump on the

nbc's priscilla thompson is on the ground for us, awaiting the president's arrival. >> reporter: air force one will be touching down in lake charles, louisiana, any minute now. the president trying to show during his afternoon on the ground in louisiana and in texas that he's taking a hands-on approach to actively working on the response to this hurricane. last night, the president signed a major disaster declaration for louisiana. that frees up federal money to be used in partnership with local governments to respond to this hurricane where you still have hundreds of thousands of people without power, hundreds of thousands without water. history tells us, alex, the way a president is seen responding to something like this can have a real effect on their political fortunes as well, be it president bush's response to hurricane katrina, 2005, widely panned, or president obama's response to hurricane sandy, seen as giving him a big political boost heading into his re-election in 2012. but, of course, any time the president takes a trip like this, there's some risk involved as well, alex