hurricane ida is grange strength and barreling toward louisiana coastline, set to hit louisiana as an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane tomorrow on the 16th anniversary to the day that hurricane katrina made landfall. the state s governor is warning that time to prepare is running out and that ida could be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the state in more than a century. all flights tomorrow at new orleans international airport have been canceled. more on that in a moment. we re also following the devastating news out of afghanistan. the u.s. embassy in kabul tonight just issuing a security alert at the kabul airport telling u.s. citizens to leave the area immediately due to a specific threat, that warning from the embassy comes just hours after president biden said that another terrorist attack at the kabul airport is highly likely in the next 24 to 36 hours. more from afghanistan in just a minute.
tell us about the phone that rang off the hook. reporter: we are staring at the eye of a monster, and just moments ago we received the national weather report from the weather service, threatening wind events moving into a particular area. i m looking at homa, louisiana. we ve had sustained tropical force winds, the storm of major hurricane ida only 60 miles from where i am. so hurricane winds are approaching because they extend roughly about 40 miles from the center of this hurricane. so we are feeling the conditions go downhill rather quickly here, and we know the threats going forward. this is a monster storm that is potentially life threatening in this particular area with storm surge and catastrophic winds already approaching the louisiana coastline. brian? it s going to be a long day for you. welcome back to you, darren.
about these catastrophic winds, but storm surge is going to be a big deal. this could be higher dependenting on when land fall makes. it may actually happen during in it between low and high tide. the that would be devastating. if you look here now, you can start to see in this parking lot we are looking at the storm surge. when we first started this morning, this parking lot was dry. and now you can see just how wet it is. how much water is accumulating and that s going to be happening all over louisiana coastline. especially i had areas not protected by a levee. you see that mound there, that green hill? that is a levee. and there s a gate that shuts that off from the rest of the
hours. the governor warns it could be the strongest hurricane to hit louisiana since the 1850s. rachel: meteorologist rick reichmuth joins us all with the latest forecast. rick: 140 mile-an-hour storm as of 5:00 advisory. hurricane hunter aircraft went in with winds sustained at 145 miles an hour. on the satellite view the image it looks absolutely perfectly symmetrical. a storm strengthening at landfall is the worst-case scenario what we want to see on the louisiana coastline. for quick measure, saffir-simpson scale how we measure the winds, category four storm. i don t think we ll get up to category 5. it doesn t really matter. winds so strong and devastating for people at southeast coast. when winds are strong incredible storm surge. center of the storm very well-defined. pretty much all around the center of the storm.