the red is nine feet. around new orleans and the mississippi river here we re grayed out, that s protected by the levee system. we do not expect the levees to be topped. they are pretty high. they re way up there. lake pontchartrain is 18 to 13 feet and the surge between 5 to 8 feet. up to 17 and 19 feet how, how high the levees are, and expecting a surge 8 to 12 feet. we think that will be safe that will be fine and survive. areas outside of the levee protection system, all the orange and reds in here and those are the people that had the mandatory evacuations and were told to get out of there. near the cutoff, a spot that s protected, houma does have a levee that protects it. the parish president said it was at 12 feet and that gets iffy. you re talking 12 foot levee and the surge is between 12-16 feet. that s going to be a close call. the same for morgan city.
are expecting. meteorologist michelle grossman is tracking item for us. and nbc today show all roker is in new orleans. el, let s start with you. it was hard to believe 16 years ago today, that katrina hit. now we re hearing ida could be a storm of historic proportions. al what are you watching for? well, joe, we re basically watching and bracing for this system. michelle will get into the specifics of the track just from the national hurricane center. but it is probably going to be a little to the west of new orleans, which puts us on the nasty side of the storm. where here at lake pontchartrain. you can see the winds are blowing. we ve had wind gusts of about 35 miles per hours. the sea is up. it s very rough. but we re going to be looking at, today we had some lightning out here as well. so, as the system gets closer and we get those outer bands starting to push in, we had some really heavy rain about 20 minutes ago. a lot of lightning.
surge. even some people inside the levee system have been told maybe should evacuate. that s how worried they are about this system. all right, we ll have more throughout the hour. u.s. forces are on high alert this morning. another isis-k attack could happen at any moment according to the latest intelligence. president biden made that morning warning while doubling down on his vowed to retaliate on the attack president biden also saying the u.s. will continue airstrikes against isis and a hunt down and the people who were involved. friday strike killed two high-profile isis-k members who were believed to be involved in planning attacks against u.s. forces. joining us right now in iran s toronto bureau chief ali. also joining us right now is nbc news pentagon producer ali we re going to talk with you. first, tell us more about this imminent threat that we re talking about and what measures here in the military is taking. they re still trying to get
you have downs in jefferson parish that s outside the levee protection system, are under mandatory evacuation orders and you ve called on every one who can lead warning that you re expecting an unsurvivable storm surge. that s a quote. what s your message to anyone listening tone? that s where my concern is. in jefferson parish, we have dense living in urban areas, but a couple hours away from us is also part of our parish is our most vulnerable communities in grand isle. that road has been closed. the people that are there are stuck there until after the storm and that is certainly our concern. we were begging them to get out, but i know we have a couple dozen people down there. that is truly our concern right now because that storm surge is going to be so strong for such a long period of time, it will be unsurvivable. that s what we re warning. you have experts saying
period of time. so, this does not portend well for the system, joe. and the rain, how big of a concern is that on top of you have storm surge and win are obviously the things to think about with hurricanes? but there is going to be a lot of rain coming in this system as well, right? this area and really areas going on up into the mississippi river valley. they ve had their wettest july, one, two, three wettest july, sever. now you ve got something that in the lower gulf coast could bring upwards of 20 inches. that is going to be devastating as far as flooding, river rise, things like that. as the system move north, and slows down, and it s a prodigious rainmaker, that s going to be a bigger problem as well. again, the system is rapidly intensifying more often, producing more rain more often, and with more catastrophic results, joe. all right, al roker. but al, thanks.