on very high ground? exactly. we think ours will be okay. but we will be helping all of our neighbors. alex, right now the wind is starting to pick up again here. as we look at what sorts of plans the city here at put into place to try to protect people i spoke with the mayor yesterday. she said they have invested $20 million to try to improve the drainage system because when ponchartrain gets backed up and the lake next to that, it affects the tributary of creeks and rivers that go all the way out to baton rouge. that is their primary concern. the mayor told me they have drained a couple feet of water in capital lake in baton rouge that can store a couple of feet in surge flood waters. hopefully that doesn t come into play and it is adequate to handle what happens here. ida, if itlingers and dumps all kinds of rain water on all of these pockets, these communities that have had trouble historically draining the water,
capital lake, should it be necessary. the question becomes right now, alex, should this storm hit landfall and then sit there pouring more rain. 8 to 16 inches projected or the 20 inches in new orleans, is that even accurate? i would add one other thing. the storm s track is just west of new orleans. i m two hours west in baton rouge. if it were to wobble any closer at that wind punch catastrophic in the city center not just in the rural areas and swampy areas of louisiana. we re all watching that track so closely. the students on campus right now are being told by the administration to shelter in place. everything at lsu canceled through at least monday. that could change. the football team has already moved to houston. they have their first game of the season coming up next weekend. they re going to be flying out directly from houston to los angeles for that game. no one is coming back here. we re hearing pa announcements
the neighborhood of $20 million. the mayor told me yesterday to improve culverts and drainage systems. they have the capital lake that has the capacity for a couple feet of flood water. but if it goes beyond that, then what? and that is really the main concern right now in baton rouge. is certainly is throughout the rest of the state of louisiana. last point right now, there are already 30,000 customers in louisiana without power. i can tell you from the hotel we were staying at, there is a mall across the street. the entire parking lot of that mall is filled right now with electric bucket truck utility vehicles ready to go out there and presumably restore power once it s safe. but it s not going to be safe for a long time. jonathan, back to you. all right, nbc news correspondent sam brock in baton rouge, louisiana, thank you very much. we will continue to monitor hurricane ida and the u.s. drone strike today on a vehicle in kabul. but up next, dr. kavita patel joins us with the la
in baton rouge where i am 2 hours west of that, they spent $20 million improving their drainage system and culverts. they did that in 2016 when there was a 500 year flood event. after all that, they lowered things down, brought the water table down. the capital lake here in baton rouge has an extra 2 feet for flood water right now. will that be enough? i m standing on the campus of lsu which is the largest university of louisiana. some 35,000 students. those students here have been told to shelter-in-place, everything has been canceled through at least monday, if not further. the football team moved out to go train in houston before their first game against ucla. they re going to fly straight to l.a. there are preparations. i m sitting on this beautiful lake, at least before it started raining. there were people exercising, bicycle and running. as recently as ten minutes ago, i saw senator bill cassidy with his two dogs walking along this lake 30 minutes ago. there s been no mandatory