ask your doctor about eliquis. tonight, hurricane ida on the move. let s get right back to ginger with the latest track. hey, ginger. reporter: it s hard to imagine, but category 4 hurricane ida has been a cat 4 on land for more than five hours. remarkable and frightening when you think about it. pummeling the rest of the state. david? ginger zee, see you in the morning, and please stay safe. we re thinking of everyone in the storm s path. i ll see you tomorrow night. good night.
and we are in on a sunday evening because of these two pm. the u.s. strike in afghanistan, and the solemn scene here at home. the dignified transfer. the 13 fallen servicemen and women returning from afghanistan. but we begin with the category 4 hurricane slamming into the u.s., making landfall just before 1:00 p.m. eastern this afternoon. as an extremely dangerous cat 4 storm, winds reaching 150 miles an hour. unleashing damaging winds, torrential rains, and a life-threatening storm surge. as we noted, this is 16 years to the day since katrina hit there. there is growing concern in grand isle, louisiana. images of water rushing into homes. calls for help. rescuers unable to reach them for some time. authorities warned that once the hurricane hits, it s difficult to get to anyone. in houma, louisiana, this roof ripped off. slamming into utility poles, taking it down. tonight, nearly a half million customers without power in that state, and the number is expected to grow.
storm. it s going over houma right now. extreme wind warnings to the west side of lake pontchartrain. tornado watches all the way to destine and pensacola, the mississippi and alabama coast up to hattiesburg. timing this out, the next couple of hours, this has been a stubborn storm. the second lowest pressure to ever make landfall in louisiana, by the way. it will stay for only a bit. but go down to 3 and 2 as it passes baton rouge. getting into mississippi still as a hurricane tomorrow morning. look at that, you wake up monday morning, you are saying, wow, we re still dealing with hurricane ida in southwestern mississippi, with hattiesburg getting those outside winds. then it stays a depression, hard-hit tennessee getting flash flood watches now. flash flood potential up to pittsburgh. as it hits a stationary front. this is a storm we ll be talking about through the midweek and unfortunately throughout history. all right, ginger zee, you and the team stay safe. i know the wind gusts
now, streets have boarded up buildings and flood gates because of the flash flood threat. reporter: officials keeping a close eye on the pumps. there s a lot of focus on the the pumps will no doubt be put to the t inewrlnsast, outsidehe lee ottion ssurge inti see.etin ffialsate today. the agency deploying 2,400 employees to the region. we re going to put the country s full might behind the rescue and recovery. and i mean that. reporter: hospitals, already packed with covid patients, now sheltering in place. emergency staff like dr. emily masoumy riding out the storm. the elevator shafts are literally shaking as i m going from unit to unit. that s all wind. reporter: ida knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers. a number officials say will grow. utility companies warning the
knows, things are going according to plan in the hospital. we have a team that is hard at work and doing a great job taking care of the kids. and everything is stable. one of the things that struck me, i know many of the doctors have small children of their own. many of them evacuated them to atlanta, then came back to stay at this hospital? riding out the storm with the patients. a really inspiring aspect of this. these are the same doctors that have been physically and emotionally exhausted, taking care of children with covid, and a multitude of other medical problems over the past number of months. and they re back at it today, giving 100%. we ve been locked down since about 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. this morning, and we ll be here for the duration. it s just remarkable that the doctors will leave their homes and families, and get them out of harm s way, but then come back to help other people s children. doctor, we know every hurricane and storm is different. but so many americans re