what i m told is that this storm in no way will be weakening. there will be and there are no signs again that this storm will weaken. and there is always an opportunity for the storm to strengthen if you are voluntarily evacuating our city, now is the time to leave. you need to do so immediately. and for more on how new orleans is planning to ride out the storm, i m joined by councilman joseph caruso. thanks for the time. a hot of infrastructure changes were made after the catastrophe of katrina. how much better prepared is the area for what might be coming? it s a great question. good evening. i think the biggest issue right now is our levee protection. you saw before, there s been mandatory evacuation, the lower lying parishes and parts of or leans parish and everything
outside the levees are protected since katrina. there s much more anything that now we have a bigger and better levee system here that smog of a storm of the degree of at least a 3 will protect us from levee overtopping tapped make sure people are as safe as possible. there were a number of evacuation orders, mandatory and voluntary. do you feel enough of those orders in the areas where they re most crucial were heeded by people? well, you re hearing from the smaller parishes that some people have left. i know there was some frustration with the hol officials for people who stayed behind. when you hear the sheriffs and mayors talk about they would leave if they weren t obligated to stay. you the other thing, you impair our ability to help. in the city of new orleans, i feel like there s a lot of people who have voluntarily
states and all around the world. i m michael holmes. this is cnn hug cnn newsroom. hurricane ida making its dangerous trek towards the u.s. gulf coast as a category 2 storm. it is a potentially catastrophic hurricane which is forecast to slam into the louisiana coast on sunday, possibly category 4, as we say, hitting the state on the anniversary of hurricane katrina. the national weather service in new orleans says storm surge and high winds could leave some locations up inhabitable for weeks or months. both mandatory and volunteer evacuations are in place. officials say if residents are planning to leave, they need to do it now or it will be too
inches, with that kind of rain, that kind of storm surge, that kind of wind, this is just a very serious storm. it will be one of the very strongest storms to hit louisiana since the 1850s. ironically it s set to make landfall on the 16th anniversary of hurricane katrina. and meteorologist tyler mauleden, tracking hurricane ida now. he joins me now to talk about it. what do you see in terms of where it s headed, when it s going to get there and how strong is it. we re seeing the eye popping up on radar. see that? you weren t seeing it in the late evening hours but now, boom, there you go. there s the ie on radar, so it is definitely gathering strength, getting ever so closer to louisiana and these outer bands are packing a punch. we had a severe thunderstorm warning in parts of the olympic channel of f panhandle.
mandatory evacuation orders, and time is quickly running out to escape the impact zone. mississippi, which was also ravaged by katrina, the governor has declared a state of emergency. the national weather service is warning that ida could leave some places, quote, uninhabitable for weeks or months. we are covering all the angles of the approaching hurricane. let s start with our meteorologist in the cnn weather center. what s the latest, tom? we ve got reconnaissance aircraft flying through the system. they re collecting data, and we ll get that for the 8:00 p.m. advisory. the sun is setting, but this is where you get to see the detail in what s happening. look for the details in the shadows from the sun. those are thunderstorms, not where we want them to form, all around the core which tells me that most likely later on tonight our category-two ida will become a category three which will classify once it does