Page 2 - Max Winds News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

But you talk about the tropical storm force winds right now. how much do you see windows boarded up, doorways and the like? >> reporter: you know, on canal street, which is just down the block, there are a lot of windows boarded up. and in and around these streets on dauphin we've seen a number of places boarded up. i can see one down the street here. looks like a small hotel, a boutique hotel. that's all boarded up. folks are taking precautions. not as much as i would have thought. but, look, with 155-mile-per-hour winds potentially, maybe not here but given that the winds extend out -- tropi...

Morgan, southwest of new orleans. give me a sense of how things are there. >> reporter: to hear bill say the eye may not arrive for another three or four hours, the winds significantly stronger, the gusts feel like they're tropical storm status and we know it's only going to get stronger in the hours ahead. right now a mandatory evacuation that went into effect about 48 hours ago. i spoke to the fire chief. he tells me he believes about 60% of the people got out of town, but that still leaves an awful lot of folks about to ride out this potentially category 4 hurricane packing incredibly power...

People feel this will be the strongest storm to hit the area since then. one gentleman who grew up in houma told me when he returned to town following that hurricane it looked like a bomb had gone off. they hope that's not the case again. the consistent power ida is bringing, we'll find out soon enough. again, i cannot overstate the potential threat that it brings to this community as the eye could be passing directly over us here within just a few hours as we approach this live shot, alex. we saw a family choosing last minute to pack up whatever they could, put it in the back of a pickup truc...

Going into that eye. to get landfall it has to go through the center of the storm. we may get that. we may not. if we don't at that location the storm has to cross over the bay and then come onshore here on the west side of the bay and heading up to homa and that will be about three to four hours from now. we may get one landfall and a second after it crosses the bay. in grand isle, we had 146-mile-per-hour wind gusts reported. it's amazing the instrument even held up. the gauge just told us it's up to five feet and is increasing rapidly. the storm surge is coming on into louisiana. now is the...

Take on some of the storm surge but when you have sustained winds that strong they're anticipating a significant loss of power and we know firefighters themselves will be hunkering down for hours on end before even they feel it's safe to get out and try to help people who may be in need. i had a chance to speak to one gentleman who was trying to leave town, had family members that were working and couldn't leave, so he chose to stay behind. and here is what he had to say about ida's approach. take a listen. >> i'm not feeling so good about this one. i've been through gustav but this one is goi...