senator bill cassidy joins us. how are things looking there? hi, neil. we re in laplace waiting for the president to join us for a walk. there s homes in which there s power lines the power is on top of the home. damaging the home. but clearly indicating there s no power. so this is one of the places hardest hit. so on the other hand as your reporter say, some places held up. the levees held. there s good story lines in here. neil: you know, few predicted the damage that this storm would inflict. seems like levees in the new orleans area held up. a lot of the expense and federal response went to after katrina
pay-off. no. let s infuse a lot of cash into and overheated economy now. again, once more, an economic afghanistan withdrawal. i think i m hoping the bill completely stops. neil: senator cassidy. we appreciate the time that you took to call. senator cassidy of louisiana coming book. speaking of louisiana, it s affected everybody including if you re lucky restaurants and if you find them open. my next guest is the ceo of raising canes. a largely chicken restaurant. a ton of them in louisiana. 80, if not more closed because of the storm. i don t know where things stand now. but al, very good to have you. how do things look with your stores now? hi, neil. devastating to be honest. we have about 50 restaurants that got impacted by the storm like senator cassidy talked
days after ida hammered the east coast. the death toll is still rising. we re getting close to the number 50 people that lost their lives. there s still six people unaccounted for in the state of new jersey at last check. you can see here, a lot of people that lost their businesses said that they were struggling before this happened and now they don t know if they can recover at all. neil? neil: thanks for that, laura. we should also now tell you that whatever you make of this storms, it is providing catalysts to get that infrastructure package through. i m talking about the bipartisan one that has republican backing. you heard from senator bill cassidy. let s go to chad pergram on capitol hill. democrats are using the storm to justify their push for the infrastructure bill and the $3.5 trillion billion. it s loaded with environmental
stunned the entire room. welcome to the lead. i m kaitlan collins in for jake tapper. and we begin this hour in louisiana where president biden is expected to speak any moment after touring communities ravaged by hurricane ida and meeting with state and local leaders. those hardest hit towns including laplace where many neighborhoods are still swamped with water. more than 800,000 hopes and businesses across the state still have no power five days after the storm. as victims deal with their destroyed homes, temperatures continue to swelter. right now in baton rouge, for example, the heat index is 105 degrees. we re covering the aftermath of ida all over the country. miguel marquez in new jersey, ed lavandera in louisiana, and arlette saenz is live at the white house. arlette, i want to start with you. what has been president biden s message while he s been on the ground today for several hours?
and we need to stay on this just because the troops are gone does not mean the story is over. so thank you very much, alex, for that update. alex marquardt there at the state department. and the lead with jake tapper starts right now. out of a political storm and into a real one. that