Page 5 - Joint Task Force Katrina News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Out new orleans entire power grid. with sustained winds up to 150 miles an hour. across louisiana more than 700,000 people remain without electricity. and after touring the state yesterday, president biden said more help is on the way. >> we're going to deploy even more federal resources including hundreds of generators. and there is more to come to restore power as fast as we possibly can. faster than anything that happened during katrina. >> joining me now is the former commander of joint task force katrina. lieutenant general russell honora. there was a similarity here with katrina in that ...

Have become so dependent on to a point where many of the 911 system depending on cell were not accessible. if you can't communicate you can't coordinate. so same problem, ability to communicate, ability to do search and rescue. all of that disrupted by power poles laying over roads, trees knocking down power. we have to fix the grid, just like we fixed the levee system, the grid to use the current term has to be built back better to recognize the that fact that you are in a hurricane zone. and commerce and government have not come to grips with this. within a few months this problem will becom...

Least right now. >> joining us now is the former commander of joint task force katrina, russell honore. i'm sorry for what has befallen new orleans yet again. you hear these live reports, little power, no food, sweltering heat, people don't have access to money, phones can't be recharged. how do first responders even get their arms around a situation like this with these cascading crises? >> yeah. that's the story of fighting a big hurricane. right now with the grid broken and the responders in search and rescue mode trying to go to each home and see if there's anybody that need to be evacuate...

The highways. >> a lot of people are scared. i'm scared. as you go from town to town, the hotels are filled up. so you just riding further and further until you find one. >> reporter: and on this 16th anniversary of hurricane katrina, louisiana's governor isn't downplaying how dangerous ida will be. >> we can sum it up by saying this will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in louisiana since at least the 1850s. >> reporter: new orleans is already in a vulnerable position. it's been raining here for weeks, meaning that the soil is already saturated. and the area is prone to floo...

Big comply point in alexandria that fema is putting in with generators and ambulances and tarps in baton rouge. things are moving in the right direction. right now the unknown is where the most damage will happen and what is going to be the impact if the levees hold will determine the number of folks that need rescue. the hotels in new orleans are in a lot better shape than they used to be. most have generators now. the restaurants have generators. so we are a lot more resilient ent than we were going into katrina. communications is so much better. when we went in katrina, people were familiar...