This is a special edition of the news with shepard smith. Hurricane delta makes landfall and good evening from cnbc the hurricane moments away from landfall right now and frankly, about to make history. Hurricane delta is closing in on the southwestern coast of louisiana as a very powerful category 2 storm delta is set to become the tenth named storm to strike the United States this year that has never happened in recorded history never have there been ten named storms i want to show you where we are right now. This is the radar. You can see part of the eye has already come ashore just south and east of lake charles, louisiana. The storm has been weakening throughout the afternoon it was 115 miles an hour four hours ago, maximum sustained winds now 100 miles an hour. The minimum pressure has risen that means the storm is getting weaker the higher the pressure, the weaker the storm, because its a low pressure center. Right now its moving toward land, and part of that eye is already over the land. I want to zoom in just a little bit and show you the area of greatest concern lake charles on the lefthand side here, thats what got hit so bad by the last storm lafayette on the righthand side, thats where we believe the eye is going to pass jennings, louisiana, right there in the middle. Lets take a look now. Lake arthur in louisiana delta is hitting communities still recovering from hurricane lauras landfall at the endi of august this is lake charles right now these are live pictures. You can see this entire area is flooded. There are cars that are underground as the storm is coming in. Blue tarps are roofs there the storm wreckage is still piled up in the streets. Heres video from lake arthur just minutes ago when it was really getting pounded this from our Storm Chasers. We have four of them who were driving the area to get us brand new and live pictures throughout this news hour there have been so many named storms this year that the National Hurricane center ran out of letters they got to z and then started using the greek alphabet delta is the first greek alphabet storm ever to make landfall in the United States. Thats never happened. The governor of louisiana says delta is expected to be a fastmoving storm and hes right. Right now its moving forward progress at 14 miles an hour, and at that pace it should be out of the state of louisiana in 14 hours we have live coverage all across the state of louisiana and especially on the western end. We have reporters there. Were live in lake charles, new iberia, and we start with sam brock. But first there is breaking news on cnbc five seconds ago, the National Hurricane center made it official. Sam brock, that storm has just officially come ashore sam, what are you seeing well, the storm came ashore and we lost so instead lets go to cal cal perry is live in lake charles for us right now cal, what are you seeing reporter hey, shep look, the way you laid this storm out, hurricane laura was six weeks ago. When you drove in it was roof after roof that had a blue tarp or having just been replaced folks who did stay or are trying to stay, but some people left. Some people were trying to prepare their houses thats one thing officials are going to be happy about. For the folks who stayed its a story of that debris that they had just gotten organized onto the street there is now landfall with this storm. Ten storms this year ill take it back to you cal perry live in the storm in a mask. Think of it. Hes so close to his photographer that he has to wear it everyone in southwest louisiana is dealing with this now theyre in evacuation shelters, they have to worry about covid, they have to worry about losing their houses and by the way, many of their houses got ripped apart on the 30th of august when laura came in there and changed their lives. We have four live cameras from Storm Chasers. Here they are. These four will be live with us through the hour some are driving around. Some when the weather gets worse, they will stop. Top left there is just south of abbeville, louisiana these are all in the same general vicinity top right there, thats jennings, louisiana. On the bottom, both of those are near lake arthur again, all of this in southwest louisiana. Just a moment ago we talked to cal perry, but i want to get to jim gray, whos live now for us in lafayette jim, youve been following this storm and the First Responders and the evacuations. What can you tell us from there . Jay gray. Reporter shep, the time to evacuate clearly over at this point. First responders saying once the storm reaches a certain level, theyre not going to get out and help those in place. We talked to a lot of those, police, firefighters who are a part of all of this. They are about to this level where if you decided to ride this thing out, youre doing it on your own. The wind has picked up dramatically, the rain as well over the last 30 or 45 minutes and then the flooding will be a major issue as well. This is the vermilion river. Its well up over its banks. You can see its in an area here that used to be a walkway. I want to show you this sign weve been watching this sign as a way to measure the water this water is pushing into places its not supposed to be in, bringing with it some unwelcome guests you can see danger, alligators and snakes in the area thats another thing theyll have to contend with here. This is just the beginning, shep were just seeing the start of what are going to be some pretty rough and violent conditions for the next several hours here. So the wind is going to pick up dramatically weve already seen Tropical Storm force winds as we get a pretty good gust here. Its going to reach hurricane level at some point in the next hour maybe, hour and a half at the moment these sheets of rain are just going to continue to fall, so thats something that so many across this region are going to have to deal with. As you talked about coming into all of this, it was just six weeks ago we were in lake charles, just 35, 40 miles to the west of where we are right now. That city ravaged. They have been working for a month and a half to do what they can. Get the power back on, get the water working properly again now they have to worry that its going to happen again. Theyre going to have to deal with another recovery on top of what they have already been working toward, shep, so its a very rough go for a lot of people in this region. Jay gray, thanks so much. I want to show you where we are on the big map behind me this is lafayette right here 75 miles to the west is lake charles. You can see the eye coming in in the center there its just come over the land i want to go over west to lake charles now. 75 miles west of lafayette nbcs sam brock is there what are you seeing . Shep, good evening. We are actually in lafayette right now. Much as jay was describing a second ago, weve seen some of the strongest bursts of wind coming up the last hour or so. To pick up off of what he was just talking about, Power Outages right here wind damage was the foremost concern and certainly flooding as well. The issue that we have run into is the fact that this area did not see the wallop that perhaps laura did. You see the wind picking up. There were no mandatory evacuations here many of the folks i talked to werent worried about this but maybe they should have been. There are commercial developments and homes nearby where this flooding could occur but a lot of people did not leave. We know from the governor of louisiana, that right now there are some 9,500 people in shelters in the state. 6,000 of those are from laura. 2,000 of those are from laura in texas. The remaining 800 are in a mega shelter in alexandria, louisiana. You talked about covid a second ago, shepard they hit the capacity of 800 they cant have any more people in those shelters. So for folks who decided not to leave and now decide theyre not comfortable for conditions, theres no going back. Theyre encouraging people if they can to get to hotels instead. But the wind as this storm has now made landfall still very strong here and the flooding for neighboring communities is a concern as we track the progress of this. Shep. Are these some of the heaviest gusts youve felt tell us describe what youre seeing. Reporter at the moment sideways rain thats hitting me in the face. Certainly were seeing what was at one point a walkway where you could go down there. As of yesterday, shep, you would see water, dirt and embankment now its just one giant lagoon of water and its starting to extending in the parking lots toward the areas right around here so flooding would be a problem what i did see earlier today as well, shep, i should add, people only 5 or 10 miles from here who told me they had their roofs pierced on their homes in the middle of laura and decided to move to another place nearby, perhaps at a home thats on stilts, but theyrestaying in the area theres grit, theres resolve, theres stubbornness here. Im seeing crews going out getting ready to try to repair a hotel right now is teeming with linesman and tree cutters ready for what the next day holds and they have to clean up the mess. How many people stayed behind, do you have a clue reporter so there are 250,000 people in Lafayette Parish from are what ive seen, most of the traffic was going out from lake charles on i10 west. People here, you did not see the mass exodus like those images youve no doubt seen from the last couple of days in this area many people here stayed. I asked why. I was told by the mayor that theres no history of mandatory evacuations in lafayette didnt think that it was Strong Enough to merit that call. As a result, it certainly appears, although theres no science necessarily on that, that most of the people here decided to stay back. Sam brock in lafayette. Lets go back across thats lafayette, thats lake charles over there see this spot right here thats lake charles. Thats the eye thats about to come to lake charles in maybe the next 10, maybe 15 minutes. So the wall of that eye, thats where the strongest winds are. So lets get there now in lake charles we have a couple of people. Who are we going to . Cal perry is there cal, you should be very near the very worst of it. Reporter yeah, this absolutely feels like the worst of it by far ill leave it to the meteorologist but when that wind and rain gets stinging, thats usually when those Hurricane Force winds are coming i got a little muddled earlier, but its so incredibly sad here in lake charles that you have some people that left six weeks ago because they felt like it was going to take a fewmonths to repair their houses so many houses here as we have a little break from the wind so many of those houses are halfway repaired they have the blue tarps or the debris sort of neatly put out onto the street. As we were driving through town today trying to get a look at what thedamage would become, i was remarkable it was looking at a fresh hurricane. So i think the concern officials have, and you heard my colleagues telling folks you need to take shelter and not go anywhere a lot of the concern that officials have, rescue officials, is that debris created six weeks ago in hurricane laura is now just going to be projectiles and become very, very dangerous in these places where the storm is coming onshore. Youre going to be in the eye, i think, in about 15 minutes. If you can describe for our viewers where you are, how youre sheltered and whats going on around you. Reporter im on a lowlevel balcony of a very large hotel. So its blocking the wind coming from this way but not this way the crew is happily inside this is as bad as its gotten, shep this is pretty bad this feels like hurricaneforce winds. What its doing, theres a little beach behind me that comes off of this cove and its clearly moving the sand off of the beach. As these bands come through, it gets really, really bad. I believe it. Im looking at the radar and the eye wall, the strongest winds, the eye wall, thats it. Its on you right this second. Reporter it feels like were getting buried now in it what is sad about when you come to this hotel in the middle of a pandemic, this hotel is packed like all the hotels in lake charles. So people are sheltering and trying to keep an eye on it. This storm is so fastmoving that maybe in a couple of hours its past them but until the eye wall gets past and then that storm shifts, youre really not out of danger. That wind shifting at times can be really dangerous, especially with debris in the area. Dont go anywhere, hang tough if you could if the weather producer could pull out just a little bit, i want to get a better sense of this eye this has been happening over the last about three hours, but you can see right here, its very hard to point, but you can see that most of that eye has just sort of it looks, at least on this radar, like its just collapsed. There was a lot of wind shear coming in from the southern part of it. We know that the pressure has come up. The pressure is up around 970 millibars now so its been rising throughout the day. That means the storm is weakening. In addition, this storm was over very hot water in the center of the gulf, about 90 degrees when it was in the center of the gulf of mexico about a day and a half ago. Where it is now or where its just passing, the water is closer to 80 degrees and its that really warm water that gives the hurricane its fuel its like gas in a car lets go to Morgan Chesky now. Morgan is also in lake charles where, morgan, the eye wall is on you reporter yeah, shep, forgive me its a little tough to ear. That eye wall is making its way to lake charles right now. Its a very surreal feeling, shep, because it was almost six weeks ago i stood on this exact balcony and watched hurricane laura tear into this community, leaving behind just a trail of devastation. Those winds from hurricane laura hitting about 150 miles an hour. Right now the strongest gusts from delta hitting right at around 100 miles an hour, maybe slightly above that, so that gives you just a little perspective. So what im standing in right now, this rain, its stinging. And you can only imagine what this wind is doing to this already battered community of lake charles, louisiana, so much of which is suffering from that category 4 hurricane now, because of that hurricane, shep, we do know evacuations were taken significantly more seriously. Driving through that city today, it felt very somber, almost like a ghost town and the few people we met who chose to stay behind here, they stayed behind because theyre simply overwhelmed theyre tired of running because this storm fatigue is setting in and you can feel that with the arrival of this category 2 hurricane. Shep, these outer bands im sorry, these are not the outer bands. This is the eye wall this might be the strongest we see from delta here tonight. Shep. I think youre a few minutes away from the interior of the eye wall could we go back to that live storm chaser picture that you just had up . That picture is giving us an idea of whats happening heres the thing, you look at this and you go, all right, they have 100mileanhour winds, gusts a little higher than that, this is right around lake charles. So you figure this is likely todays damage, and im told that it is you see the power line thats come across there. But theres so much damage in lake charles already one more thing i want to show you and then well get to the National Hurricane center. See this down here thats the tip of louisiana. You see cameron, louisiana thats the marshy area that is the tip of louisiana you can see theyre in dry everything there is in dry because thats the center of the eye. So the eye is over the coast its heading toward jennings, lake charles and lafayette lets go straight to the National Hurricane center. The head man is ken graham and hes live with us. Well, its ashore and almost exactly what you predicted, ken. Its right on the track and the intensity did exactly what we thought we thought it would get over that warm heat ocean content of the gulf and increase like it did last night and weaken when it got to shore. Weaken is a relative term. I saw some of the images with people in the field, the eye all at lake charles, just an incredible amount of wind, damaging wind and really so close to where we saw hurricane laura. Show us what you can show us. Yeah, you look at this. You saw the radar analysis that eye wall, just an amazing amount of wind all of this tropical moisture is going inland alexandria and look at these rain bands, 40, 50 miles away, you can see tornados, you can see heavy rain but this is whats scary you start looking at the actual water levels and we were really worried about that storm surge at low tide this is where youre supposed to be, shep, but look at the water weve got 7 foot of storm surge in that area, and you still havent even had high tide yet were going to add another foot and a half or so so the dangerous storm surge is happening. 7 to 11 foot in some areas its life threatening and thats what were keeping an eye on the next several days. Thanks so much, ken i want to show you where this thing is going so you see where the eye wall is coming ashore right now, right here the track is that it heads up in the general direction of alexandria, louisiana. And then right on this corner right here, this is natchez, mississippi. That is going to go right between those two areas, loop over in the general direction of jackson, mississippi, and head up to tupelo in the Northeast Area of the state. Elvis birth place all of that area getting rain. Now, jackson, mississippi, has had 10 inches of rain over the last 24 hours, but its been quiet through much of the afternoon. The rain is getting there now. You can see natchez is just beginning to get hit as well i want to go to the mayor of lake charles nick hunter is with us and hes on the live line thank you so much, mr. Mayor youve been warning your residents for a while. How are you at the moment . Well, me personally, im safe our community is reeling right now. We are in the middle of a battle and it feels like we just got out of a battle. So this community is pretty weary at the moment. But we are resilient i tell you, as soon as this thing passes, were not going to sit on our hands, weavre goingo start picking up the pieces. It will be quiet for a little while but not long because its only the western edge of the eye. Maybe it will be calm for 15, 20 minutes. No one can go outside at that point because the other side is bad. I agree as i look outside right now, it definitely looks like a hurricane is in town. It definitely is. Youve got maximum sustained winds in lake charles at about 100 miles an hour with some gusts a little bit higher than that the storm will start weakening, but the rain is going to keep coming, at least for a little while. How flooded are you and what do your people need, going all the wa