a lot of calls from folks who say, hey. i've lost my roof. i'm seeing this type of damage or that type of damage. the sheriff says, look. we told people to evacuate as you know, pamela. you heard the warnings. and now it's just they have to wait until morning until they can make sure the roads are safe enough to get out there to assess the damage. we're already seeing the damage here, again here at the power station, houma, like much of louisiana without power. the folks here are going to be waking up to see what type of damage hurricane ida has left behind. pamela? >> now utility companies are warning power outages from ida could last for weeks. we have that on top of all of this damage and a little window you're giving us into what is likely the case across many parts of the state. thank you very much. let's go straight to baton rouge now and check in with cnn's ed lavendera. what is the situation there?