i mean, it was a tropical wave and we forecast some sort of impact. we were looking at some sort of impact in louisiana, really the same spot for the last two or three days. if you think about that and the rapid intensify case of this storm, we had nine tropical systems rapidly intensify last season, and this did the same thing. warm waters, all the conditions were perfect and to see that type of intensity overnight, it was well-forecast but at the same time just incredible change and incredible intensity that makes it that much more dangerous. the government invested billions of dollars improving the region s storm protection infrastructure and ida as we ve been saying is really going to test that system. so can you measure at all how likely that is to hold up given the surge that you re seeing and the wind and the various factors that are testing it. yeah, you know, it s always a test with these system. we had a look at some of the big storm surge values but really
this system continues to slow down and make that move. otherwise, when i talk about a slow-moving system, you have to talk about the potential for rain and we re certainly going to see it. some of the bright purple areas, 18 inches or more. that is including the new orleans area. stretching over close to baton rouge and then a whole lot of moisture is going to run with this, running up the mississippi river, eventually getting into the ohio river valley and then up into new england, that s still a couple days away but flooding is going to be one of the major concerns from the mississippi delta and getting up into mississippi, even over portions of alabama, flooding a big concern, it s going to be a busy next 24 hours and of course we will be watching it. mike and jackie, back to you. mike: 20 inches of rain in new orleans, sounds like the biggest test of the levee system since katrina 16 years ago. reporter: it will be. mike: adam, thanks very much. heavy rain could make for major fl
scene. but what kind of costs are we looking at potentially for a storm of this magnitude being over land for as long as it s forecast to be, every hour that it hangs out over the land is just another hour that it s tearing things apart. can you talk about how that slow pace really impacts this? yeah, that doesn t help. you look at the damage from these storms, it s all the hazards. you don t even know until it s all said and done. you look at this radar once again, it s going to take some time to get into some of these areas to see what kind of damage there is. once we get the system cleared out, that s when officials can get down and assess the damage. it s going to take some time. big event, you re right, the longer you hang around the more water you can get, the more rain you can get, the more flooding and that compounds the issues and the damage. all right. ken graham, thank you so much for being with us. really appreciate your insight there. thank you. mike?
what we re really concerned with is out of the federal system, so some of the local levees, some of those could over-top. it s a test of the system. once you get the storm surge in and out, it s still the rainfall that occurs. so just because you start reducing the surge over the next few hours, i m still so concerned about the amount of rain that could fall over the next 24, 36 hours. we re going to have to watch that as well as some of the water gets inside the levee systems. aside from the storm surge and the wind, obviously there s a risk for spin-off tornadoes that comes with this storm. how does that change things? can you talk about that at all? it does. it s interesting. when you look at the tropical systems, you think the movement of about like this, that s the movement of the storm currently. you draw a line through the center. 90% of the tornadoes occur in the right front quadrant. look at alabama, look at portions of mississippi.
the immediate hours ahead? certainly power outage. this is certainly a wind event. the rain has not been an issue to this point. not saying it won t be in the future and you know our city is uniquely impacted by water with our geography so that s a concern. but i m concerned about obviously structure damage but with the wind cascading power outage, looking at about 74,000 customers in our city without power right now and it continues to grow. so i m quite certain that we will have widespread power failure for at least probably a significant amount of time. mike: so it s 16 years since hurricane katrina, obviously a great deal of investment made in the levee system there in new orleans. are your levees ready? i believe so. and you know, we ve discussed this with our state partners, the local levee boards and also the army corps of engineers and it is a great investment made by the american taxpayer, $15 billion in the system and structures that we never had in