federal resources. with respect to the president we also very much appreciate the fact that last evening he signed a prelandfall declaration for the 17 parishes in south louisiana that we had requested a declaration for. this will remain a night event. it is critical that everyone who has been told to evacuate or would like to do so that they do it now. molly: casey stegall is live on the ground in lake pontchartrain. casey, why is the storm surge such a concern where you are? well, molly, we are in the northern part of new orleans and lake pontchartrain is right back here. and the reason the storm surge is of such concern is because this giant body of water connects to lake born, which then connects to the gulf of mexico. so when you hear storm surge, this is where it could be experienced. and when you talk about it
most of the water that we re going to see will be because of storm surge. and obviously no one should take this storm lightly. it has proven to be very deadly. in honduras, and anything rawg i can t annicaragua.we have not taking it lightly. we are still very concerned and no one should be complacent. eric: this is a familiar message, something we have seen the past few weeks. casey stegall live at lake pontchartrain in new orleans. is he talking about the storm surge, casey. i mean, you have the lake behind you. those counterclockwise winds that they come from the north over. get hit in new orleans both sides. that s right, eric. and when we talk about storm surge, this is really where we re talking about. lake ponch train her pontchartrn new orleans. this is connected to lake born which feeds out into the gulf of mexico. so the surge pushes its way through and we had some new
ashore and we are starting to see heavy wind gusts. 4 miles per hour or so here. rain is really coming down. just beyond the i-10 bridge there, looking east, is where lake pontchartrain meets lake born and lake born meets the gulf. earlier today army corps of engineer closed a huge lake on the barrier. it was built after katrina. 26 feet above sea level and designed to protect the low lying areas from the storm surge. meantime, new orleans is under voluntary evacuations. many people staying put. president obama has approved a disaster declaration for louisiana and ordered federal dollars to the region. to is upment state and local response evidents. evidents response efforts. we have response team and supplies to help the community in the expected path of the storm. this is a huge storm.
update on the storm where they believe it s going and what things are going to be like over the next 12 to 48 hours. what you can tell us? recent observations which unfortunately starting to confirm what we were expecting for wind and storm surge. if i point out new orleans right here. there is elevated platform offshore which had a wind gust to 106 miles per hour. the reason that s important, they are at 280 feet is that the upper floors of high rises in new orleans and other places getting close to 280 feet will receive some of those similar winds. so, gusts to 100 miles per hour could occur in those high rise areas. now, in terms of the storm surge, which we have been talking about as well, it s already a storm surge of 5.5 feet in the waveland, mississippi area. and in lake born, just to the east of new orleans, the storm surge is now at 8.5 feet.
jalalabad. he has been organizing attacks on u.s. and other allied forces in afghanistan ever since. update on tropical storm lee. residents in new orleans scrambling with last minute preps sandbagging areas prone to flooding. it s not looking good right now. southern louisiana is getting drenched as the storm center slowly churns towards land. rick reichmuth is following this story for us. he has the latest. not as much like hurricane concern when you think storm surge and big winds. winds 50, 60 miles per hour. a rain event across areas. it s already been raining for two days exactly where you see this. that s going to continue for another at least day and a half. tornado concerns, tornado watch in effect. we will see this persistent flow coming out of the southeast. that means we will see some water rising against lake pontchartrain and lake born. storm surge that makes people concerned about the levees.