Page 30 - Hit Area News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Leave for delaware for the weekend, labor day weekend. jeff paul is on the ground there in new orleans. he joins us now. hi, jeff. >> yeah, martha. the president landed a short while ago in new orleans where he was greeted by the city's mayor and the governor, john edwards. now he's working and meeting with folks at the local emergency operations center for one of the local parishes and getting an update. he will be in laplace louisiana. a part that was hit by the strong winds and high flood waters. we heard reports of people riding out the storm in their attic and roof and waiting to be rescu...

This is the hardest hit area in louisiana. it took us several hours just to get down here, and we passed by miles of downed power lines and washed out roads. and the people who live here, they haven't even been back to see what's left of their island. this is what it looked like when hurricane ida tore through grand isle, louisiana, on sunday. this is what's left of grand isle today. every building in the state's last-inhabited barrier island is damaged; almost half of the homes and businesses, destroyed. nearly all of the homes and businesses here in grand isle are built on stilts. they're de...

Evacuate and stuck on the island. >> seeping in from all the doors, all the close sets. >> reporter: dominique thomas is bracing for weeks of recovery but can't stop thinking about the eight brutal hours her family endured through the storm. >> the doors were rocking back and forth. the windows were shaking. it was just a matter of time before you felt like everything would go right off. >> that was ed lauvandera reporting. now she joins me by phone, president of st. john the baptist parish was the hardest hit area in the state and where he is right now. thanks so much for being with me. we he...

And we did just get this update. they say that power company say there is potentially two ways to get some power back on in parts of new orleans within 48 hours. one option, by creating their own grid in new orleans with power lines that they say still seem to be in decent shape. or hooking back up to the main grid that runs through the entire country. the company is saying it will take weeks to get power back in the hardest hit area. this could be a really positive potential way out for some people. garret? >> vaughn, we know coast guard is out trying to pull people to safety all across the r...

And get to everyone timely. >> you mentioned st. johns. where is the hardest hit area? where are you concentrating? >> it may not be the hardest hit area but that's the most flooding relatively close to me in baton rouge. so it laplace just south of interstate 10 baton rouge and new orleans and lake pontchartrain. >> any sense of -- i think when people think of obviously new orleans, they think of what they saw during katrina. we're awaiting daybreak, they want to know if that's what you're dealing with. do you have any sense of what you're dealing with? >> it's going to be very close to the s...