historic levels of damage right now, jonathan. just to give you some more historical context to all this, there have only been four cases in history where cat-5 has made landfall in the continental united states. 2017 was the last time. folks remember hurricane michael. the rarified storm is sitting on our doorstep with the gulf of mexico providing jet fuel for propelling it into the coast of louisiana. and where it lands is so important because at this point the storm is also widening its footprint as well. hurricane-strength winds, jonathan, are now 15 miles extended from the core of ida. which is to say it may clip new orleans. it would encompass baton rouge. when you talk about the wind speeds you re starting to look at potential infrastructure damage as well. it there is so much folks in louisiana have done to prepare for something like this in recent years. louisiana, the new orleans area, they invested billions of dollars in rebuilding the levee system.
katrina. joining me now is nbc news correspondent sam brock who is in baton rouge, louisiana. sam, so you were saying the last time we spoke before the rains had started, at least then, there were people walking along the banks. you saw senator cassidy. what have you seen since then? reporter: a little less activity since then. and frankly, the outer bands were just starting to get hit with those here in baton rouge now, jonathan. this storm has the potential to be the strongest louisiana has ever experienced. previously was hurricane laura 150 mile per hour sustained winds. mid 1800s, the storm prior to that. this continues with projections of 155 miles per hour, which is 2 miles per hour less than cat-5 status, it will be the strongest storm ever to strike louisiana. and, jonathan, right now there are thousands of members of fema getting ready to deploy and at a moment s notice going to be jumping in. we re talking about not just in
attitude. louisiana has seen a bunch of storms before. we ve weathered this. we ll be fine. when you conceptualize the storm could be going directly over this area and the fact that back in 2016 they saw some 30 inches of rain that sat over here and created such a deluge there were hundreds of thousands of homes that were damaged. it makes you think how are they going to be able to handle this? there was a letter sent out from the mayor courtesy of fema s requirements to 1,750 homeowners telling them their homes had to be elevated or sold to the government for demolition because of the flood risk. it was last month. we re standing to see how the area will be affected. baton rouge is in ida s path now. we send it back to you, jonathan. all right. sam brock in baton rouge, louisiana. thank you very much. joining me now is lieutenant general russell honore.
processing plant. about 16% of our oil goes through there. if it doesn t get landfall there, then it ll cross the bay here. we may get landfall in three or four hours here from now if don t get it here. as far as the winds go, they re starting to pick up. highest winds, of course, over the ocean. now arriving on the coast. to get the 150 to 180 miles per hour winds, almost like a big tornado, you have to go through the eye. wherever the goes is where the extreme wind damage will be. we think it will head up and miss grand isle. we think the eye will miss the new orleans area. they ll get the hurricane gusts but not the devastating eye there. here s the latest from the hurricane center. it s moving at 13 miles per hour. that s at zeent clip. it s 85 miles due south of new orleans now. the storm is just about as close as it s going get to new orleans. it ll kind of parallel new orleans to the west side as we go throughout the next 12 hours.
it really is. we see the water come up in places like bay wave in mississippi about this location. we re seeing spikes in that water. the storm surge is starting to come in before the actual storm gets there. these values, jonathan, 12 to 16 feet of storm surge is staggering. that s the highest we ll see right where that center of that storm is and just to the right. those winds stretching out 50 miles per hour will push to the bay of st. louis and mississippi. but over to the mouth of the mississippi river is staggering. that s water indication. that s looking at the 8 or 10 foot ceiling and forecasting 12 to 15 feet of storm surge. it s extreme. 12 to 16 feet of storm surge. yeah. that kind of indication is life threatening. it s on the coast. not just that, it pushes inland. you can push some of that inland as some of the bays inlands.