Sunday. 16 years to the day after can katrina. The single death came sunday evens where a tree toppled over a home. A flash flood emergency has been declared for the entire south shore metro area and new Orleans Parish including new orleans is without power after what the Power Company is calling catastrophic transmission damage. Louisiana said some of the customers could be without power for weeks. Now the 911 system in new orleans is experiencing difficulties. In the area theyre experiencing total devastation. We have a bunch of people trapped. Its too rough. It would be life threatening for the person operating the boat at this time. We try to do high water trucks. We cant get through the water. Our main bridge to our community. And most of them are evacuated but we have about 300 people. 200 people were still there. So as though who stayed in their homes wait for help, many are cut off from basic utilities. Theyre evacuating patients from two facilities hit hard. President joe biden declared a major disaster in louisiana and offered up federal aid. Our coverage begins with cnn derek van dam live in houma, louisiana. I know you were getting whipped around earlier. What does it look like now . Reporter yeah. We were in the bulls eye of the storm. It was a nightmare snarcenario t unfolded here before our eyes. It was relentless. The ending fury of category 4 hurricane winds felt right where im located i just its so hard to describe exactly what happened. Im going to do my best to share it with you. It was White Knuckle, anxious moments for my team, the people on the ground here, and certainly for the individuals who tried to ride out the storm in the area. It was like taking, for example, an analogy. It was like taking a direct hit from an ef 3 tornado. Winds over 140 Miles Per Hour. Over a large space of time. And over a large distance, as well. The storm, we anticipated the eye to go over this area. So we thought we would get some respite. That did not happen. The storm pivoted and pounded us with the relentless wipd for hours. There have been helicopters flying around. Familiar sounds of generators humming in the background. The only emergency vehicles we see on the roads are the blue lights flashing occasionally. I think theyre making sure trying to scope out the situation, of course, well get a better idea of the devastation once we get first light here in the next couple of hours. It was a scary moment for our crew yesterday as the worst of the storm came in and that was about 5 00 p. M. Evening time. It was still daylight but then once it worked its way into my time, it was a disaster. There was natural gas leaks in the area. There were trees that fell on cars behind us. You can see over my right shoulder here, this is a small taste of the problems that were going to be dealing with this morning. This was more of a wind damage disaster here than a flood damage. We havent seen any extensive flooding in and around the general hotel area that were located in. But really what were talking about here was a true nightmare. A scary situation for people who did not have admittedly the luxury of a reinforced concrete building like we have. We have to think and pray for the people here this morning. Yeah. We are listening to the wind. Feeling it on the ground, i know, is different. Thank you for being there for us. Stay safe. Well come back to you in a little bit. A beast of a storm here. Some residents told to evacuate immediately because of a levy failure and high tide in grand isle, louisiana about 30 minutes away from now. The flood threat is active. Our meteorologist is tracking this monster storm live with us. Cnn weather center. Its good to remind people that, you know, new orleans and some of louisiana had more rain so far this year than they usually do on average. Its a very wet and soggy situation. One reason why when the storm came ashore, it had the organized eye wall. Its so wet there. Absolutely. Its a very good point here, as well. Metrological phenomena that. About 20 of tropical systems its called the brown ocean effect. The soil is so saturated. It essentially acts like the gulf of mexico. 13 hours since landfall now. 13 hours over land still maintaining category 1 hurricane strength. Spent about five hours at category 4 strength. When you put it over the waterways, its conducive to maintaining an intensity of a tropical system but this one crossing into the state of mississippi in the last hour and maintaining hurricane strength. It speaks volumes as far as how intense of a storm were dealing with. Estimated rainfall totals in the region in the colors of pink,s it is rare to see that. About a foot of rain has come down. One of these levies has failed. When you put a tremendous amount of water in the region, the wind speeds, at one point, making landfall at 150 Miles Per Hour, its among the strongest storms weve ever seen make landfall across the u. S. In grand isle, the wind measuring device had 148 Miles Per Hour wind gusts and its indicative of it breaking down because of the intensity of the storm system. We lost communication with it. Winds could have gone higher than that. It speaks to how intense of a storm were tracking here. Here it goes. Very organized. We think itll finally begin breaking down and become a Tropical Storm in the next several hours. Monday afternoon across portions of the state of mississippi and eventually as we go into monday night and tuesday morning, well see it cross into the Tennessee Valley and push across the ohio valley even into the northeast. So a significant weather player and peak Hurricane Season, christine, just about a week away. Idata and now transitioning to julian. 80 its kate evolving off the coast of africa. Thats another one were watching closely. Wow. Five hours as category 4 hurricane over land. Remarkable. It shows you how big it is. Well talk to you soon. Rescue efforts about to ramp up significantly in louisiana. Well speak to a member of the cajun navy. Thats next. Frank is a fan of fast. Hes a fast talker. A fast walker. Thanks, gary. And for unexpected heartburn. Frank is a fan of pepcpcid. It works in minutes. Nexium 24 hour and prilosec otc can take one to four days to fully work. Pepcid. Strong relief for fans of fast. Do you struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep . Qunol sleep formula combines 5 key nutrients that can help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up refreshed. The brand i trust is qunol. Microban 24 doesnt just kill bacteria once, then stop. It keeps killing bacteria for 24 hours. 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Just as soon as we can, well be engaged in robust search and rescue operations. Volunteers springing into action in assisting First Responders in this extensive search and rescue effort underway in louisiana this morning. Among the crews are members of the volunteer rescue group the cajun navy. Theyre assembling boats lending resources to highwater rescues and other concerns. For more on the effort, well bring in jordy westworth from the cajun navy. Its one of the reasons they asked people to get out of the way because theyre so worried about this particular period when you have people asking for help in a dangerous situation and help cant quite get there just yet. Still too dangerous. Where are we on the spectrum of hunkering down to full blown rescues . Caller we are getting close to rescues than the hunkering down part, thankfully. Its been a long night waiting to get to sunrise and better conditions to get to some of the people that are trapped. Were hearing reports of downed bridges and water levels as high as peoples chests, in some cases. To any victims potentially listening to this, if they can, given the power situation. What advice can you offer to help them through now . Caller as hard as it is, just try to remain calm. If you can get on top of something, stay out of the water. Do that. Well come. Help is on its way as soon as daylight comes. Well be there as soon as possible along with all the law enforcement. Yeah. This is a dangerous storm. Youve got flying debris. You cant have people out there in boats trying to get to attics and peoples homes just quite yet. And the anniversary of katrina interesting here. Ida made landfall on the 16th anniversary to the day of katrina. We know there were a lot of improvements made, you know, to sort of, you know, protect against storm surge and the like. Tell us living through these, how do they compare on the ground what youre seeing . Without getting to seeing exactly what has been impacted and how much yet, i dont think area wise its quite as much flood damage as katrina was. Theres several impacts in areas but not as much of a Coverage Area being flooded like katrina. But the storm seems to have a ton of wind damage along with it for a bigger area. They all vary a little bit. And somewhat lived up to be as bad as of a storm they said it was going to be. You know, record winds and gusts and storm surge possibilities. Its definitely wasnt a good one. Yeah. Each of these storms has its own sort of fingerprint. I know after Hurricane Katrina, billions of dollars were spent on flood management to make sure the water event wouldnt be the problem. This is a wind event. Do you feel like you have what you need to prepare for Something Like this. There have been reports for some time that things could be pretty ugly. Do you feel you have the resources on the ground to have what you need . Caller yes. I think we have everything in place. This is our 60th year doing this, unfortunately. Its the situation we help in but we kind of have what we need down to a science, for the most part. Remind our viewers you know what the cajun navy is. The group of volunteers with your, you know, personal boats and how you coordinate these rescues. Caller yeah. Thats pretty much exactly it. Were just a group of local mainly volunteers. You know, have some of these resources of our own and we pull them together and put everything together and coordinate to be ready to go out and help anyone we can when the storms come. You know, if we can save more life, then its worth it. To anyone that might be up early watching us, at this hour, is there anything the public can do, obviously right now stay safe as possible, but anything you want people to know . Caller yes, maam. You can follow on facebook. We have live updates there. Well have posted for different supplies and things we need like water, toiletries. We set up Distribution Centers in the aftermath to get some of the victims on their feet. Theres also a donate button that will help us buy food that we cook for hot meals. Get gas for our rescue efforts and things like that. We can always use help. Some people think because theyre not here and dont have a boat they cant help. But we can almost certainly find a way for everyone to help. Wow. Thats certainly something i know a lot of people want to know. Thank you so much for your work jordy, stay safe, sir, of the cajun navy. Breaking overnight rockets fired at the kabul airport. Who is responsible for the latest aggression as the u. S. Withdrawal winds down . Did. E becausem but i wasted up to 20 gallons of water every time. Now, we just scrape and load. Finish quantntum works withot prerinsing, cleaning your dishes to a shine. Join the millions of americans skipping the rinse to o save r water. 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What do we know about the rocket attack, nick . Reporter yeah. As of this morning, last heard near Hamid Karzai International airport. Were in the final moments there. Five rockets seemed to have been fired in its direction. Initial reports suggesting once again they believe possibly isisk may have been behind this. At this stage, no reports of casualties, but it adds to the general fever pitch, frankly, around that final moments of u. S. Departure on the airport. Its unclear when it may be. We had a horrific 48 hours behind us in terms of the number of blasts heard in kabul. Yesterday there was a drone strike on a compound in kabul. The u. S. Saying it was defensive. They believe they were under imminent threat and they saw secondary explosions as a result of the drone strike. But after having initially said there were no indication of civilian casualties, they have said its possible. Were assessing the results of the strike, which we know disrupted an imminent isisk threat. It may have caused additional casualties. Its unclear what may have happened. Were nvlging further. We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of life. From reports from the scene they have talked about eight or nine possible civilian casualties here including children. The u. S. Is examining what happened in that that incident. Shocking as it would potentially be. Separately, were also hearing, too, from taliban they are not interested in a proposal put forward by a number of countries for possibly establishing a safe zone in kabul. Unclear how it would work. It would have been one of the bridges between where the european and u. S. Allies are now, which is hoping they can continue these evacuations. That does seem viable at the civilian airport and they have assurances if people have the documentation they would be allowed to leave but at the same time, obviously, the notion of an area in kabul that is outside of taliban control is kind of unworkable. Most importantly here is clearly a heightened threat environment for those remaining troops on Hamid Karzai International airport. Its unclear who is behind the recent blasts. Initial reports suggests eisis but its a fastevolving situation. Yeah. Looking at live pictures the airport and not seeing Much Movement there. Lets talk about what happens next. The u. S. And other countries putting out statements saying theyre going to put it to the taliban to allow people to leave after tomorrow. How is it supposed to work . Reporter its part of the general game of leverage between the taliban, who so far appear to have left the United States to leave in orderly fashion. Even provided perimeter security. Who have so far not publicly necessarily conducted revenge attacks many were concerned about inside of kabul. It may have been happening outside of the public view on a larger scale. So the taliban presenting a sort of more acceptable face in the International Community. The critics suggesting its purely a short term measure to get the airport running, a degree of International Recognition or diplomatic channels existing with them because they need International Aid and their Bank Accounts assessable around the world. This strong statement clearly a way of the International Community banding together and saying to the taliban these are the things we want from you, if do you are going to get the things out of us we want. And the key thing the u. S. Wants is get those remaining personnel and citizens it has inside kabul, afghanistan out and possibly to be able to continue to evacuate sib applicants after that airport is essentially handed over to the taliban on the 31st, tomorrow. Its unclear what the fate will be. But certainly things moving fast on that airport and real desire for the u. S. To be able to finish the job bringing out all the people it promises to. Yeah. Trying to get it done. Nick paton walsh, thank you. Hurricane ida devastating parts of louisiana. At least one person confirmed dead but the real rescue work just beginning. New orle