Transcripts For CNBC The News With Shepard Smith 20240712

This is a special edition of the news with shepard smith. Hurricane delta makes landfall and good evening from cnbc the hurricane moments away from landfall right now and frankly, about to make history. Hurricane delta is closing in on the southwestern coast of louisiana as a very powerful category 2 storm delta is set to become the tenth named storm to strike the United States this year that has never happened in recorded history never have there been ten named storms i want to show you where we are right now. This is the radar. You can see part of the eye has already come ashore just south and east of lake charles, louisiana. The storm has been weakening throughout the afternoon it was 115 miles an hour four hours ago, maximum sustained winds now 100 miles an hour. The minimum pressure has risen that means the storm is getting weaker the higher the pressure, the weaker the storm, because its a low pressure center. Right now its moving toward land, and part of that eye is already over the land. I want to zoom in just a little bit and show you the area of greatest concern lake charles on the lefthand side here, thats what got hit so bad by the last storm lafayette on the righthand side, thats where we believe the eye is going to pass jennings, louisiana, right there in the middle. Lets take a look now. Lake arthur in louisiana delta is hitting communities still recovering from hurricane lauras landfall at the endi of august this is lake charles right now these are live pictures. You can see this entire area is flooded. There are cars that are underground as the storm is coming in. Blue tarps are roofs there the storm wreckage is still piled up in the streets. Heres video from lake arthur just minutes ago when it was really getting pounded this from our Storm Chasers. We have four of them who were driving the area to get us brand new and live pictures throughout this news hour there have been so many named storms this year that the National Hurricane center ran out of letters they got to z and then started using the greek alphabet delta is the first greek alphabet storm ever to make landfall in the United States. Thats never happened. The governor of louisiana says delta is expected to be a fastmoving storm and hes right. Right now its moving forward progress at 14 miles an hour, and at that pace it should be out of the state of louisiana in 14 hours we have live coverage all across the state of louisiana and especially on the western end. We have reporters there. Were live in lake charles, new iberia, and we start with sam brock. But first there is breaking news on cnbc five seconds ago, the National Hurricane center made it official. Sam brock, that storm has just officially come ashore sam, what are you seeing well, the storm came ashore and we lost so instead lets go to cal cal perry is live in lake charles for us right now cal, what are you seeing reporter hey, shep look, the way you laid this storm out, hurricane laura was six weeks ago. When you drove in it was roof after roof that had a blue tarp or having just been replaced folks who did stay or are trying to stay, but some people left. Some people were trying to prepare their houses thats one thing officials are going to be happy about. For the folks who stayed its a story of that debris that they had just gotten organized onto the street there is now landfall with this storm. Ten storms this year ill take it back to you cal perry live in the storm in a mask. Think of it. Hes so close to his photographer that he has to wear it everyone in southwest louisiana is dealing with this now theyre in evacuation shelters, they have to worry about covid, they have to worry about losing their houses and by the way, many of their houses got ripped apart on the 30th of august when laura came in there and changed their lives. We have four live cameras from Storm Chasers. Here they are. These four will be live with us through the hour some are driving around. Some when the weather gets worse, they will stop. Top left there is just south of abbeville, louisiana these are all in the same general vicinity top right there, thats jennings, louisiana. On the bottom, both of those are near lake arthur again, all of this in southwest louisiana. Just a moment ago we talked to cal perry, but i want to get to jim gray, whos live now for us in lafayette jim, youve been following this storm and the First Responders and the evacuations. What can you tell us from there . Jay gray. Reporter shep, the time to evacuate clearly over at this point. First responders saying once the storm reaches a certain level, theyre not going to get out and help those in place. We talked to a lot of those, police, firefighters who are a part of all of this. They are about to this level where if you decided to ride this thing out, youre doing it on your own. The wind has picked up dramatically, the rain as well over the last 30 or 45 minutes and then the flooding will be a major issue as well. This is the vermilion river. Its well up over its banks. You can see its in an area here that used to be a walkway. I want to show you this sign weve been watching this sign as a way to measure the water this water is pushing into places its not supposed to be in, bringing with it some unwelcome guests you can see danger, alligators and snakes in the area thats another thing theyll have to contend with here. This is just the beginning, shep were just seeing the start of what are going to be some pretty rough and violent conditions for the next several hours here. So the wind is going to pick up dramatically weve already seen Tropical Storm force winds as we get a pretty good gust here. Its going to reach hurricane level at some point in the next hour maybe, hour and a half at the moment these sheets of rain are just going to continue to fall, so thats something that so many across this region are going to have to deal with. As you talked about coming into all of this, it was just six weeks ago we were in lake charles, just 35, 40 miles to the west of where we are right now. That city ravaged. They have been working for a month and a half to do what they can. Get the power back on, get the water working properly again now they have to worry that its going to happen again. Theyre going to have to deal with another recovery on top of what they have already been working toward, shep, so its a very rough go for a lot of people in this region. Jay gray, thanks so much. I want to show you where we are on the big map behind me this is lafayette right here 75 miles to the west is lake charles. You can see the eye coming in in the center there its just come over the land i want to go over west to lake charles now. 75 miles west of lafayette nbcs sam brock is there what are you seeing . Shep, good evening. We are actually in lafayette right now. Much as jay was describing a second ago, weve seen some of the strongest bursts of wind coming up the last hour or so. To pick up off of what he was just talking about, Power Outages right here wind damage was the foremost concern and certainly flooding as well. The issue that we have run into is the fact that this area did not see the wallop that perhaps laura did. You see the wind picking up. There were no mandatory evacuations here many of the folks i talked to werent worried about this but maybe they should have been. There are commercial developments and homes nearby where this flooding could occur but a lot of people did not leave. We know from the governor of louisiana, that right now there are some 9,500 people in shelters in the state. 6,000 of those are from laura. 2,000 of those are from laura in texas. The remaining 800 are in a mega shelter in alexandria, louisiana. You talked about covid a second ago, shepard they hit the capacity of 800 they cant have any more people in those shelters. So for folks who decided not to leave and now decide theyre not comfortable for conditions, theres no going back. Theyre encouraging people if they can to get to hotels instead. But the wind as this storm has now made landfall still very strong here and the flooding for neighboring communities is a concern as we track the progress of this. Shep. Are these some of the heaviest gusts youve felt tell us describe what youre seeing. Reporter at the moment sideways rain thats hitting me in the face. Certainly were seeing what was at one point a walkway where you could go down there. As of yesterday, shep, you would see water, dirt and embankment now its just one giant lagoon of water and its starting to extending in the parking lots toward the areas right around here so flooding would be a problem what i did see earlier today as well, shep, i should add, people only 5 or 10 miles from here who told me they had their roofs pierced on their homes in the middle of laura and decided to move to another place nearby, perhaps at a home thats on stilts, but theyrestaying in the area theres grit, theres resolve, theres stubbornness here. Im seeing crews going out getting ready to try to repair a hotel right now is teeming with linesman and tree cutters ready for what the next day holds and they have to clean up the mess. How many people stayed behind, do you have a clue reporter so there are 250,000 people in Lafayette Parish from are what ive seen, most of the traffic was going out from lake charles on i10 west. People here, you did not see the mass exodus like those images youve no doubt seen from the last couple of days in this area many people here stayed. I asked why. I was told by the mayor that theres no history of mandatory evacuations in lafayette didnt think that it was Strong Enough to merit that call. As a result, it certainly appears, although theres no science necessarily on that, that most of the people here decided to stay back. Sam brock in lafayette. Lets go back across thats lafayette, thats lake charles over there see this spot right here thats lake charles. Thats the eye thats about to come to lake charles in maybe the next 10, maybe 15 minutes. So the wall of that eye, thats where the strongest winds are. So lets get there now in lake charles we have a couple of people. Who are we going to . Cal perry is there cal, you should be very near the very worst of it. Reporter yeah, this absolutely feels like the worst of it by far ill leave it to the meteorologist but when that wind and rain gets stinging, thats usually when those Hurricane Force winds are coming i got a little muddled earlier, but its so incredibly sad here in lake charles that you have some people that left six weeks ago because they felt like it was going to take a fewmonths to repair their houses so many houses here as we have a little break from the wind so many of those houses are halfway repaired they have the blue tarps or the debris sort of neatly put out onto the street. As we were driving through town today trying to get a look at what thedamage would become, i was remarkable it was looking at a fresh hurricane. So i think the concern officials have, and you heard my colleagues telling folks you need to take shelter and not go anywhere a lot of the concern that officials have, rescue officials, is that debris created six weeks ago in hurricane laura is now just going to be projectiles and become very, very dangerous in these places where the storm is coming onshore. Youre going to be in the eye, i think, in about 15 minutes. If you can describe for our viewers where you are, how youre sheltered and whats going on around you. Reporter im on a lowlevel balcony of a very large hotel. So its blocking the wind coming from this way but not this way the crew is happily inside this is as bad as its gotten, shep this is pretty bad this feels like hurricaneforce winds. What its doing, theres a little beach behind me that comes off of this cove and its clearly moving the sand off of the beach. As these bands come through, it gets really, really bad. I believe it. Im looking at the radar and the eye wall, the strongest winds, the eye wall, thats it. Its on you right this second. Reporter it feels like were getting buried now in it what is sad about when you come to this hotel in the middle of a pandemic, this hotel is packed like all the hotels in lake charles. So people are sheltering and trying to keep an eye on it. This storm is so fastmoving that maybe in a couple of hours its past them but until the eye wall gets past and then that storm shifts, youre really not out of danger. That wind shifting at times can be really dangerous, especially with debris in the area. Dont go anywhere, hang tough if you could if the weather producer could pull out just a little bit, i want to get a better sense of this eye this has been happening over the last about three hours, but you can see right here, its very hard to point, but you can see that most of that eye has just sort of it looks, at least on this radar, like its just collapsed. There was a lot of wind shear coming in from the southern part of it. We know that the pressure has come up. The pressure is up around 970 millibars now so its been rising throughout the day. That means the storm is weakening. In addition, this storm was over very hot water in the center of the gulf, about 90 degrees when it was in the center of the gulf of mexico about a day and a half ago. Where it is now or where its just passing, the water is closer to 80 degrees and its that really warm water that gives the hurricane its fuel its like gas in a car lets go to Morgan Chesky now. Morgan is also in lake charles where, morgan, the eye wall is on you reporter yeah, shep, forgive me its a little tough to ear. That eye wall is making its way to lake charles right now. Its a very surreal feeling, shep, because it was almost six weeks ago i stood on this exact balcony and watched hurricane laura tear into this community, leaving behind just a trail of devastation. Those winds from hurricane laura hitting about 150 miles an hour. Right now the strongest gusts from delta hitting right at around 100 miles an hour, maybe slightly above that, so that gives you just a little perspective. So what im standing in right now, this rain, its stinging. And you can only imagine what this wind is doing to this already battered community of lake charles, louisiana, so much of which is suffering from that category 4 hurricane now, because of that hurricane, shep, we do know evacuations were taken significantly more seriously. Driving through that city today, it felt very somber, almost like a ghost town and the few people we met who chose to stay behind here, they stayed behind because theyre simply overwhelmed theyre tired of running because this storm fatigue is setting in and you can feel that with the arrival of this category 2 hurricane. Shep, these outer bands im sorry, these are not the outer bands. This is the eye wall this might be the strongest we see from delta here tonight. Shep. I think youre a few minutes away from the interior of the eye wall could we go back to that live storm chaser picture that you just had up . That picture is giving us an idea of whats happening heres the thing, you look at this and you go, all right, they have 100mileanhour winds, gusts a little higher than that, this is right around lake charles. So you figure this is likely todays damage, and im told that it is you see the power line thats come across there. But theres so much damage in lake charles already one more thing i want to show you and then well get to the National Hurricane center. See this down here thats the tip of louisiana. You see cameron, louisiana thats the marshy area that is the tip of louisiana you can see theyre in dry everything there is in dry because thats the center of the eye. So the eye is over the coast its heading toward jennings, lake charles and lafayette lets go straight to the National Hurricane center. The head man is ken graham and hes live with us. Well, its ashore and almost exactly what you predicted, ken. Its right on the track and the intensity did exactly what we thought we thought it would get over that warm heat ocean content of the gulf and increase like it did last night and weaken when it got to shore. Weaken is a relative term. I saw some of the images with people in the field, the eye all at lake charles, just an incredible amount of wind, damaging wind and really so close to where we saw hurricane laura. Show us what you can show us. Yeah, you look at this. You saw the radar analysis that eye wall, just an amazing amount of wind all of this tropical moisture is going inland alexandria and look at these rain bands, 40, 50 miles away, you can see tornados, you can see heavy rain but this is whats scary you start looking at the actual water levels and we were really worried about that storm surge at low tide this is where youre supposed to be, shep, but look at the water weve got 7 foot of storm surge in that area, and you still havent even had high tide yet were going to add another foot and a half or so so the dangerous storm surge is happening. 7 to 11 foot in some areas its life threatening and thats what were keeping an eye on the next several days. Thanks so much, ken i want to show you where this thing is going so you see where the eye wall is coming ashore right now, right here the track is that it heads up in the general direction of alexandria, louisiana. And then right on this corner right here, this is natchez, mississippi. That is going to go right between those two areas, loop over in the general direction of jackson, mississippi, and head up to tupelo in the Northeast Area of the state. Elvis birth place all of that area getting rain. Now, jackson, mississippi, has had 10 inches of rain over the last 24 hours, but its been quiet through much of the afternoon. The rain is getting there now. You can see natchez is just beginning to get hit as well i want to go to the mayor of lake charles nick hunter is with us and hes on the live line thank you so much, mr. Mayor youve been warning your residents for a while. How are you at the moment . Well, me personally, im safe our community is reeling right now. We are in the middle of a battle and it feels like we just got out of a battle. So this community is pretty weary at the moment. But we are resilient i tell you, as soon as this thing passes, were not going to sit on our hands, weavre goingo start picking up the pieces. It will be quiet for a little while but not long because its only the western edge of the eye. Maybe it will be calm for 15, 20 minutes. No one can go outside at that point because the other side is bad. I agree as i look outside right now, it definitely looks like a hurricane is in town. It definitely is. Youve got maximum sustained winds in lake charles at about 100 miles an hour with some gusts a little bit higher than that the storm will start weakening, but the rain is going to keep coming, at least for a little while. How flooded are you and what do your people need, going all the way back to august 30th . Well, thats a loaded question when you talk about the water, absolutely what you said is very true that a storm surge could actually come and water is going to rise after the initial storm passes through with the way our waterways are here in lake charles. So were very concerned about flooding, very concerned about the rain that were seeing right now, and you said what do we need look, right now were going to get through the immediacy of this event but we are going to need help in the recovery part of this. We were already reeling from a historic and catastrophic event with laura when you put delta on top of it, were going to help each other here in lake charles were going to help our brothers and sisters. But were going to need american help were asking america, the federal government, not to forget about southwest louisiana once this thing passes and a lot of the news cameras are gone. Weve been following a woman who was just a real inspiration to us. I dont know if you saw it, but just an incredible woman who was a Home Health Care worker. When she had to evacuate august 30th, she took an elderly man with her and went on one of those airbnb to motel to airbnb treks as evacuees from hurricanes do. Shes had this elderly man with her the whole time they set up a go fund me for her. Where can people donate . What can people do well, the first thing i tell people is pray on it you donate to the agency that feels right to your heart to give your hardearned money to but i will tell you that our local Community Foundation and united way both have funds set up for laura quite honestly, were just after laura, we didnt get the National Attention that a lot of other places got if the immediate rescue and recovery had been an absolute screwup, maybe we would have got more attention but we need american help right now. And if there are people out there that want to contribute to one of those funds, it is very needed right now we appreciate it. Nic hunter, whos the mayor of lake charles, louisiana, and hunkering down at the moment on the wall here, it looks like the eye, it ought to get quiet outside in just a minute you can see right here, theres lake charles, theres the eye. Its moments away. Same way at lafayette. First, though, to jay ecker. He coowns two restaurants in lake charles rick and jacks Brewing Company and panorama music house in old downtown district. It looks like youve got a heck of a storm out there how are things and how are you its starting to get a little bit scary. Im seeing debris floating down the street, which looks more like a river right now but were safe were hunkered down. I see behind you, i dont hear it, which is surprising, but i can see it behind you. Whats back there and whats happening back there well, thats my backyard. I used to have a fence there until laura. Its now gone. So some of the trees that were back there are gone as well. And so this what were seeing that looks damaged back there is damaged from august 30th thats right. And what youre getting now is wind and rain. Exactly. You said its starting to get scary. You lived through a storm a month and a half ago does this seem like a cake or is it like well, we evacuated for laura. Im glad we did when we foupnd out it was a 4 at the time we took off. We decided to stay for this one because we didnt feel it would be as bad and kind of fatigue from running away. And now are you glad you stayed for this one . So far. I hear you. We have some roaming cameras around your town theres a lot of flooding, a lot of power lines down. Theres damage its not like last time, but my god, you cant take any more there im guessing people must be just beaten up. Well, i know as a business owner, its a 1, 2, 3 punch. Because there was covid, which causes a lot of problems and then laura, which were of course still recovering from and now this so its all up in the air. Well, were pulling for you thank you. Well check back in with you throughout the hour. Jay ecker is a businessman there. I want to get to janice huff, chief meteorologist at nbc new york to take a look at exactly where the eye walls are. You have some traffic cams too show us around. Hi, shep. We have a road in lafayette, louisiana. Not much happening on the roads, thank goodness people are staying at home or in their evacuation area, wherever they are. This is our radar and satellite over like the last 45 minutes to an hour. You can see some of the wind gusts in the last 15 minutes or so over 50 miles an hour, but near that eye wall of course youre seeing higher gusts, heavy rain bands too so theyre seeing the worst of the rain as well as the wind, the storm surge when the eye wall came ashore some areas have already received upwards of 8 inches of rain and flash flooding is occurring in and around lake charles, up towards glen mora and lafayette and kinder theyre getting some of the heaviest rain as we speak. The storm still at a category 2 with winds of 100 miles an hour at the center is moving off to the northnortheast. The pressure is now up to 970 millibars. Its still going to produce a lot of heavy rain and Power Outages as it moves toward alexandria, jackson and into northern mississippi by tomorrow just in comparison in terms of the track between laura and delta, very close to the same track, not the exact one but extremely close. Those tracks differed onshore only between 15 and 20 miles between the two storms that moved onshore. So this is very, very rare we probably have only seen that happen one or two other times. One thing for sure, another record, you mentioned this earlier, that delta makes the tenth storm that has made landfall this year and thats the most in a season since 1916 when nine storms moved onshore. This continues to be a recordsetting Hurricane Season, shep. Just incredible can you show us, are you able to zoom in and show us whos in the eye right now way down there in the louisiana coast. We can see it lets see if we can ill say to my producer if we can zoom in a little closer to our radar picture and show exactly whos within the eye or close to the eye right now, if we can zoom in just a little bit closer the eye is here. So heres cameron, louisiana, which is close to where laura made landfall. Iota is about to get it. Iota is about to get it here. And theres that eye wall here this is where youre going to see the strongest winds within this band, maybe some gusts close to 100 miles an hour we did have one unofficial gust down near cameron right along the shore of 89 miles an hour. That was not an official recording but we did see an unofficial recording there of a 90mileperhour gust. I know your reporters are out in the field getting battered right now. Yeah, they are. Janice, thanks i want to get to Morgan Chesky right now. They ought to be in the eye in a few minutes but the worst of it could be immediately morgan, are you there . Reporter yeah, that eye wall making its way through that area right now. Janice was absolutely right on the flash flooding our phones just went off a short time ago saying that the Flash Flood Warning is definitely in effect for the lake charles area i have to tell you that right now, one big fear is all of those blue tarps that are covering so many roofs here in lake charles, shep, this is the strongest wind weve felt so far right now. Bear with me here. It is really picking up now and we just have a river that runs into lake charles behind me. There we go. All right, and right now, though, as i was talking about those tarps, shep, thousands of those cover the tops of roofs that were ripped off by hurricane laura. And we know that theyre not going to stand up to this wind and right now were talking about even more damage thats coming to this Community Still reeling from hurricane laura i had a chance to speak with one man earlier today who evacuated because of delta he said that if he came back from this storm, shep, and if his home had more damage from it, he wasnt going to rebuild he was going to move his family out of this simply because of this incredible storm. Its tough to make eye contact with the camera right now, forgive me, just because this wind and rain has picked up to the strongest weve felt here in lake charles so far today. Shep, back to you. Anybody whos been on a boat knows the feelings like needles in your face but at 100 miles an hour, its rough, isnt it . Reporter it absolutely does. In fact you mentioned the boats. We heard from some folks who were taking their boats out into the water away from the piers because thats where the damage can happen for the fifth time this Hurricane Season. Think about that people have evacuated four times in certain areas whoa, here we go people have been taking their boats out time and time and time again. It gets old and it wears on you. Here we go, shep bear with me now this is the strongest gust weve felt so far. Oh, boy. All right. So if that eye wall had not come over lake charles hold on, let me grab the balcony here goodness gracious. Hold on, man. Reporter i cant hear you right now, shep, but i can tell you if you are out and about in lake charles, you are going to want to hurcnker down for this keep in mind, this is a category 2 hurricane. This is not a category 3, definitely not a category 4 that we saw with laura and you do not want to mess around with this folks. Shep, well send it back to you. Going to cal perry whos in a different place. Cal, give it to us. Reporter yeah, we are getting absolutely buried. I think right in the center of the eye wall just as the eye wall is about to break it would be great to be in the eye and have a break as morgan was saying, if you are anywhere in the area here we go youve just got to stay where you are and shelter in place once that wind gets up to where it is now, emergency officials are not going to be able to get out and about and that becomes a problem. So wherever people are in the lake charles area, its time to shelter in place i can echo exactly what my colleague was just saying. Again, just four landfalls this year in the state of louisiana alone. It is exhausting it just is relentless for the people who live here shep, you know this very well, even evacuating for these storms is uprooting peoples lives. It is really something so this city has been through so much i think people thought louisiana was going to catch a break when new orleans wasnt hit and then im going to hang on here now you have that irony now of this storm just 15 miles from where hurricane laura hit six weeks ago. Its pretty unbelievable, shep. Yeah. Whoever would have thought this was even possible. I think in about 5 or 10 minutes, youre going to be clear and only for a few minutes. See, look at this. Lake charles, thats the outer part thats the very hard eye wall. And then clear that clear is on its way reporter hopefully theres not much behind it there we go. Im like morgan, im going to hang on to the balcony now good idea. Reporter you know, people here were hoping theres not going to be much behind the storm. But with winds this strong and that much debris, i dont think it will matter i think the damage probably will be done, shep. Cal, morgan, thank you. Well go to our live Storm Chasers in a bit as our coverage of hurricane delta making landfall continues more stories of people riding out delta. In business you have to be able to shiftpivotadapt. Then do it all over again. Comcast business gives you fast, reliable internet on the nations largest gigspeed network. And now for a limited time, you can also get fast shipping with amazon business prime essentials. So no matter what comes next, youll always be ready to bounce forward. Get started with powerful internet and voice for 64. 90 a month, and ask how you can get one free year of amazon busines prime essentials on us. Call or go online today. Comcast business. Hurricane delta has come ashore along the louisiana coast. You can see the eye there. Its splitting the difference between lake charles and lafayette, louisiana this storm is moving at 14 miles an hour, so it will be out of louisiana in the next 12, 14 hours or so. Its headed toward jackson, mississippi, which would be in that general vicinity and then up toward tune loerpelo, missis. This storm will be a problem by late on saturday and into sunday nashville is going to get rain theyre not going to get heavy winds. 30, 35 miles an hour, but lots and lots of rain Morgan Chesky is in the middle of it all in lake charles. The eye is coming, but not yet. Reporter yeah, shep, the eye is not here but its making a convincing case with these wind gusts moving through right now we are feeling some powerful, just torrential rain make its way through here unfortunately, its only going to get stronger. Right now i can tell you that all across lake charles, the good news is that the people took these evacuation orders seriously and got out of town. And that is important, because one of the problems weve seen with past storms in this area is that people have not taken them seriously. Weve heard time and time again from officials, dont let the cat 1, cat 2, cat 3 storms fool you, they can absolutely pack a punch. Were seeing that firsthand right now. This is a category 2 hurricane that weakened from a category 3 right before landfall. Had we not had hurricane laura come before in this area, we could be seeing the problems in that a lot of people could still be at home having to face this flooding, these high winds face to face. So if theres any Silver Lining at all in this horrible storm coming six weeks after laura, its the fact that lake charles for the most part has cleared out. Those mandatory evacuations went into effect several days ago, and i can tell you i saw i10 out of this city bumpertobumper for miles and we are talking about people packing up as best they could and getting out of town because nobody wanted to chance it after having seen what laura was capable of now, right now here we go we might be feeling that eye wall start to move in right now. These winds only getting stronger here. Bear with me now now, if there is one similarity between aside from where they struck from laura to delta, its the fact that these are relatively fastmoving hurricanes i want to compare what were seeing right now to hurricane sally, which struck the mobile, pensacola area i was there for that that was a slowmoving 2 to 3mileanhour hurricane this moving significantly faster, which as you can see with these wind gusts moving through here, that should mean that the worst of this storm should not last much longer for this area. And so were going to be keeping a very close eye on delta as it advances whats very i mentioned its surreal to be here because weve been here before, but just on the other side of this balcony, there is a gazebo that they use for weddings here that laura wiped clean. Took it all the way down and i watched that happen from inside my room and its hard to believe that those were 150mileanhour winds and were not even standing in probably close to 100mileanhour wind that gives you a perspective if you think you can make it in one of these storms or if you think you want to get out and about, do not. Its not safe. My crew is in a safe place right now. Theyre just inside the hotel room in a very dry, warm place ive got a balcony to hold on to right here so you can see. But if theres ever any proof of what a category 2 hurricane is capable of, youre looking at it right now, shep. Were in the middle of it. That eye wall if its not on us, its about to be any minute right now. And i cant help but feel for everyone in lake charles when i drove through those neighborhoods today talking to those few people that stood behind with debris piled on the sidewalks, blue tarps over so many roofs, and you can only wonder what its going to look like this time tomorrow when this storm passes. The saddest part of all is that we still have a significant amount of Hurricane Season to go, shep and these people, the storm fatigue is setting in. Its a trauma of sorts and so right now in the midst of all this, you have to look at the longer impact and the wear and tear that delta is going to leave behind on this community. Your heart breaks for hem morgan, thanks i want to show our viewers something thats been happening. This eye, its breaking up you see that, the eye walls have collapsed in just the last 15 minutes or so. Part of this is about it coming ashore obviously the fuel isnt there and it begins to lose shape, but it had really been happening throughout the afternoon ive been watching these things for 30 years in many of your homes, previously in another place. But the great thing about this place, we have the resources of cnbc, nbc news, telemundo stations and nbc owned and operated stations and one of the best forecasters and hurricane people i know is meteorologist Steve Mclaughlin with us krae crazy Hurricane Season for the gulf and louisiana tell us how they have been battered all year. Shep, good evening. Keep this in mind. Only once before in the history of keeping tropical records back in 2005 have we made it into the greek alphabet back in that year gamma and delta both happened in midnovember were in the first week of october and already we have those two storms and this mess right here, these are all the landfalls in the gulf coast in 2020 of Tropical Storms or hurricanes weve got hannah that was padre island, texas weve got sally, came across south florida and up toward the florida alabama border but then laura, cristobal, laura, delta this blue right here, thats laura, came in with winds of 150. It gall strongot stronger, up t 4 as it approached right here we have delta shep, check this out 14 miles, 14mile difference between two landfalls in the same season. Zoom in on the worst of it if you could, steve. Lets zoom on out and show you where the center of the storm is right now you were talking about that eye wall its right up there at about i10 on the big picture you can see where the heaviest rain is theres i10 so lake charles, lafayette, williams, oakdale, dry creek, ft. Polk these are the areas in the worst of it right now. Steve, thanks i need to get to greg hennigan, the general manager of the Golden Nugget hotel and casino right there at lake charles. I think the worst of it is on you. What are you seeing . Its pretty fierce out there but the wind is roaring back there. Is this about what you expected have you been able to survey at all . Yes, i stuck around for hurricane laura as well so we kind of knew what to expect. Its right on us. How in the world can you recover when you keep getting hit over and over again . Its frustrating, very frustrating. Its got to be frustrating for our First Responders that are with us as well, to go out and start from square one again. So its tough. You have evacuees there too, right . How do you deal with covid amid these storms safety is still our top priority so were still enforcing the mask policy and social distancing. But we do have over 500 First Responders staying with us and theyre ready to get to work tomorrow morning after this passes. I was going to ask you, what is your plan tomorrow . I know what you do the day after a storm, you go outside and start picking up, but youve been doing that for six weeks. Yeah, exactly and so tomorrow morning well have to go out and assess the damage im hearing were suffering some roof damage already. Were on generator power right now. We are without water but we went through this with hurricane laura. We were without power and water for a few weeks so we know how to deal with it. Greg hennigan, good luck to you, appreciate it i want to go to russel hono honore now you may remember in the days after katrina when everything was unbelievably destroyed and no one quite knew what to do, he came in and got us organized he coordinated the military relief efforts across the entire gulf south you ought to be getting a little rain there how are you . Doing fine. A lot better than those folks out there surviving those torrential rain, wind, and then the trauma of going through this twice in six weeks, shep. Lake charles, lafayette, new iberia, its just that whole region again absolutely. Youve had great coverage over the last half hour ive listened to the mayor and some Business People that have highlighted the dilemma were in, and youve eloquently in your own expert way told this story over the last 45 minutes but i think we need to focus on making sure that the government understands this is not normal we need a new fema model thats going to take into account that this community was fighting covid with very high unemployment, because of the Entertainment Industry and the restaurant and other industries in this region that Oil Production was down many of the oil workers and people who work in the energy business, the Third Largest Energy Producer in the United States. Thats all shut down. Were going to need a different kind of model from the white house. The old fema model is not working. What do you mean . Do you mean organizationally what do you mean you need a new model . Speak to me. Well, i tell you what, fema has done a good job in this initial response, in the response phase getting the blue roofs on with the corps of engineers great work over 6,000 tarps on. They have been present they have done everything i know the governor has asked for but when it comes to the amount of this money the state is going to have to pay back, pay 25 or even 10 of this back, the state is still paying back from katrina because of their portion of the expenses that go with cleaning up and taking care of people we need a new model and we need speed, shep. The houses from harvey, irma and maria have not been replaced, shep now we see this area thats been devastated by two storms in five weeks using that same model. We have to find ways to tell people yes this place had high unemployment because of the covid the oil patch is down and now weve been hit by two hurricanes were going to need a different model to help these people what they have done so far has been great work but the next phase is helping get people back in their home. We have a need for speed, shep. I dont have to tell you, general, that they havent put more money in, they pulled money out. The budget is smaller, the agency is smaller, the need is greater. Absolutely, shep. Im glad youre telling that story tonight with the mayor on the ground talking about the pain and suffering but as we talk about the pain, theres been good news weve had volunteers from red cross, salvation army, from all over the country we even had First Responders drove down from connecticut, shep, and came to search and rescue weve been blessed, but the need is great were the second poorest state in america the nation needs louisiana 52 of all the barges in the United States are in louisiana on any given day 35 of the fuel come out of that gulf between lake charles and houston. We are valuable to the economy of the nation. Because oil prices are bad, people tomorrow will not wake up and pay 5 a gallon for gas. Thats good news but that means a lot of our people are out of work were in a state and we need an intervention from the senate to help the people from louisiana and we need those volunteers to continue to come back. Were so grateful for everything the government has done and what volunteers have done, but the need exceeds the capacity we have now to take care of our people. Lieutenant general russel honore, it is an honor, sir. Thank you so much. Good evening, sir. Its so easy to forget when you watch the wind and the rain and the reporters in their shiny jackets and the guy standing on the big wall that these are individual people and how badly they are hurting and have been hurting. Louisiana got wrecked by katrina and as general honore just put it, they have never fully recovered. Now southwestern louisiana has been hit twice in six weeks. Theyre individual people who dont have jobs because covid took them away, who dont have roofs because laura took them away, and its wet in their homes with their children tonight. This isnt an idea or a concept, its not a statistic, its real. Its human beings who are wet and will be for days to come they need help well have more in a moment. Weve been watching this from a storm chaser as the water has been rising up this building thats the storm surge coming in and it had been anticipated and its happening i can give you some numbers. Were now expecting 2 to 4 feet around the mouth of the mississippi river, 1 to 3 feet along lake pontchartrain, and the worst of this is coming in now and the numbers are the storm surge theyre now saying about 11 feet. And thats where the worst of its going to be, right around lake calcashu which is around Lake Lafayette compare that to Hurricane Katrina which came in not in louisiana but in south mississippi. Sure, new orleans flooded, it was horrifying, but the storm hit south mississippi. And in south mississippi they had a 31foot storm surge. 31 feet. So the entire town of waveland, mississippi, all of it, was removed from the planet. In some places the foundation of the building, the concrete foundation was eroded to the point where it broke apart and went away and you couldnt even find the slab. Think of it. It pushed pieces of houses for two miles to a Railroad Track for 30 miles across the state of mississippi. It was gone and piled up like firewood this is not that storm this has a storm surge at its highest about 10, 11 feet. It has a lot of rain there are areas, jackson, mississippi, may end up with 16 inches out of this thing it will rain all the way up in new orleans. Its not a killer storm. But you want to live through it . Wendy harper is living through it shes in lake charles, louisiana. In late august, her home caregiver business was destroyed by hurricane laura we introduced you to her on the news earlier this week this is lake charles wendy, im so glad to see you. How are you . Good. Hanging in there its getting a little scary. We lost power about an hour or so ago about three hours ago we started having raining upstairs and water coming through into the house . So were going around emptying buckets in the house, yes. So were emptying buckets every hour setting up little rigs of ice chests and hoses so its been crazy. How are you smiling and laughing through all of this well, i dont know. I think its just try to get through it all landfall probably happened about 30 minutes ago, so were seeing a lot of high gusts now. We actually just about ten minutes ago watched two trees just crack so its pretty interesting but a little scary. Wendy ran a place with 50 home caregivers. They go to peoples homes, mostly older people and help them one of her workers took an elderly man with her on a multiday, multiweek, sheltertoshelter expedition. How are they theyre doing okay. They actually had a little bit of a nightmare story yesterday she evacuated with two handicapped patients this time and with one other caregiver and they had prepaid for airbnb in houston, texas it took them about ten hours to get there. When they got there, the owner of the airbnb wouldnt respond to them or answer the phone. Of course she prepaid it so she was stuck in the middle of the night and had to find a hotel room so we got her situated today in a new airbnb. Shes a hero. Shes a hero for sure. Theres a hero in every storm. Every storm has a hero and shes one. And we recognize that i promised her a spa day when things got better. She has a teenage son there she is takes elderly people with her on her trek of evacuation, and now she got run over by an airbnb owner because some people are bad and some people are good and shes good shes very good shes very good. Shes a single mom she puts her kids through Catholic School here, Catholic Private School and im very proud of her shes amazing. Were proud of all of you, were thinking about you and were not going to forget you. Ive got to get to the storm chaser, jordan hallow is with us jordan hall, what are you seeing in lake arthur were starting to see some pretty decent damage going on, a couple of feet of water in some places the power lines are down some trees are down on quite a few power lines as well. Is it about what you expected, jordan i see a lot of power lines down. I see a lot of cars underwater, a lot of roads washed out. Yeah, this is kind of what you expect, especially with a hurricane. Its pretty bad to say especially after what laura just did to this community and seeing these businesses go through this again is pretty tough. It sure is. And i know all you Storm Chasers have been out there. These are live pictures now from one of the other Storm Chasers it looks like i mean they told us there would be a bad storm surge and a lot of coastal eroding and they werent wrong yeah, no. I know were just on the northern tip of lake arthur and there is some pretty big waves coming in on there a lot of water surging in a little bit, so all right, man. Be careful. Yep, thank you. I appreciate it. So this will go on all night in southwest louisiana the storm is between lake charles and this is lafayette right here if you can push in just a little bit there in 30 rock there we go. So thats where the eye is coming through its going to move at about 14 miles an hour and its just going to keep heading north. See natchez, mississippi, right up there on the corner tip historic, gorgeous place, incredible theyre going to get spanked same with jackson, mississippi, ant and then up to tupelo, mississippi, and up in nashville by the end of the weekend it will be wet and you will be weary. Its great to have all these resources and be able to tell these stories. These stories are about people theyre not about statistics and government and spats between one side and the other, they are individual victims of so many things right now in our society. Think of the people who have lost their job because of covid19, then lost their roofs because of the last hurricane, and are now losing hope. Thats how it is for some folks. The news continues and well continue to report nashville, good luck over the weekend. Jackson, be careful. Natchez, its going to be a long night. Night. Well have you covered from the narrator in this episode of american greed. The ringleaders of a o Resource Management are putting an old twist on a new scam. The a o management were incredibly bold, brazen, and creative in the quantity and quality of lies that they devised. Narrator they take a legitimate business and pervert it into a 100 million lifeinsurance fraud. They believe that they can outsmart the authorities, and they certainly believe they can outsmart investors. Narrator but a o is just a lie that grows, devouring the guilty and the innocent