more than 2,000 miles of transmission lines down and many without service so they can t call for help. 5,000 members of the national guard are deployed to help in the rescue and recovery efforts underway. the coast guard is also now on the ground. i ll be speaking with the man leading that mission in just a moment. i do, though, want to begin president biden today saying that the administration will do everything it can to help those affected by the storm. here he is. we re going to stand with you and the people of the gulf as long as it takes for you to recover. jason carroll has more tonight from houma, louisiana. reporter: throughout much of downtown houma, louisiana, one can see the damage from hurricane ida in nearly every direction. this was once a childhood home of harrison. his great grandmother lived here, now it s all gone. my whole childhood is just
blinken for more on the end of the war in afghanistan, america s longest war. but in the meantime, lots of other stories in our national lead. ida is now a tropical depression, weakening after having made landfall yesterday in louisiana as a category 4 hurricane. at least one person has been killed, as cnn s jason carroll reports. the governor in louisiana is warning that the death toll almost certainly will not stay there. reporter: throughout much of downtown houma, louisiana, one can see the damage from hurricane ida in nearly every direction. this was once the childhood home of harrison short, his great grandmother lived here. now it s all gone. my whole childhood is gone now. this is all that s left.
light, the weather was still treacherous. i got on an over flight this morning from mobile, alabama at 4:30 and the weather was still horr horrendous. we were able to get the aircraft out and on scene to provide life saving service. what are your crews seeing on the ground right now? well, i can tell you what i saw. i was able to do two over flights today and i saw utter devastation. it was catastrophic. my heartbreaks for the people in louisiana. we were able to fly over some of the hardest hit areas, new orleans, houma, grand isle, those places were it s hard to describe. it just a catastrophic scene and my heartbreaks for folks. some of these images that we ve had, you know, as you say, it s hard to put words to it. we have images of horrible flooding. are you rescuers even able to
this man found someone else s roof had landed on his car crushing it. thankfully it missed most of his home. i heard a big thump on my house. reporter: it could be from this building over here or that one over there. we re not sure where the roof came from. reporter: so, jake, some out here in houma were luckier than others. some came home and found out that they had just lost their roof or part of their home. others came home to a scene like this. the man who lives in this house at one point yelling out for help. he survived the storm. he, like so many other people here, now figuring out what to do next. jake? all right, jason carroll in houma, louisiana, thank you so much. joining us on the phone right now is the sheriff of terrabonne parish.
reporter: across the street the barbershop destroyed, the home next door is still standing, barely. lionel says part of the roof is damaged, his carport gone. he waited out the storm with his wife at their home, and at one moment he says the wind was so bad they thought they would not survive. it was scary. we prayed and asked the lord to take care of us and protect us, give us this opportunity to breathe. reporter: you got down on your knees and prayed? yes, sir. reporter: next time a category 4 comes through, do you think you ll evacuate? i m getting out of here. reporter: ida crawled across the southwestern section of the state. portions of the houma, terrabonne airport destroyed.