Devastated the state 16 years ago today. Its too early to assess idas huge swath of damage, but the Wrecking Power is obvious. Just look at this Video Right here. Flooding is widespread in Idas Path and some areas could see up to 20 inches of rain. More than a half million homes and businesses are without power, and that number is sure to climb. Officials say it could take weeks to restore power. The Levee System in New Orleans vastly upgraded after katrina is holding so far. The States Governor says Hurricane Ida will be the levees most severe test. Lets go to the Cnn Weather Center and meteorologist tom sater. Tom, are you surprised this is still a category 4 storm hours after it made landfall . Very surprised really. We knew it was going to hit with a punch, and we knew because it was kind of small and compact in its size that it would act as a cannonball and shoot inward. Just moments ago, we can now say its weakened to a category 3. Thats still amazing to me. To see the outline in a well defined storm well inland like this on an infrared satellite imagery, i can tell you very rarely ever see this. Maybe in parts of china with massive typhoons in the western pacific. But again in the u. S. , a well defines eye. The winds are still quite strong. Currently its about 30 miles just to the southwest of New Orleans, looking like its making its way toward Baton Rouge but it may thread the needle here. A new product from the national Hurricane Center has come out with this extreme wind warning. Its extremely rare. This is when winds are in excess of 115 miles per hour. Thats massive for a very large area. Theyve been able to reduce the coverage of this somewhat to the South But Theyve added it earlier today now to include parts of western New Orleans. Pamela, not only is it making its way well inland as we talked about last night together, that it would most likely slow down. Thats the last Thing Anybody wants to see with anything tropical in nature because its going to wring out more and more moisture. Take a look at the bright banding. This is what we also call with normal thunderstorm activity training, like the boxcars of a train. One boxcar after another, thunderstorms riding over the same location. We saw the terrifying pictures in waverly in west central tennessee, centerville as well. Its a different dynamic with that. The Moisture Content was high. Climate change is changing things. Theres more moisture for these things to work with. When you look in and get a little closer, a little concerned about a few areas. Plaquemines parish into saint bernards parish, this band is quite intense. In plaquemines parish, weve seen the overtopping of the levee on the East Bank. Thats a big concern. Then youve got this well concentrated eyewall. Not only was it an eyewall where its more intense in the center eyewall, we almost have what we look at as an outer eye band. These areas are getting hit with intense winds, continue for quite some time. They weaken, and then they get hit with a stronger band when it gets closer to the core. So, again, what youre seeing now in red, these are Flash Flood warnings. Where you would expect to find them, where you have some of the banding, this is Escambia County in western florida. South central coastal area of mississippi, i believe harrison county. Then on both sides of the eye. Again, when we talk about that Northeast Quadrant where the winds are the strongest, where the rain is the heaviest, you dont look at it as you would north and south. Look in the direction its moving. Its only moving about 9, 10 miles an hour. Yesterday at this time it was 16, so it has slowed up. So to the southwest around grand isle. I think they were closest to this eyewall and battered by some time. Picture that line from the southeast up into areas toward, lets say, Baton Rouge. That is that quadrant where the rain is the heaviest. Therefore, weve got problems. Of course that includes parts of New Orleans sitting in that bowl as its Pumping System goes to work. There was some Pump Problems earlier in sewage pumps earlier before the storm even moved in. This is estimated Rainfall Totals now. Were already seeing this 6, 10 inches and the forecast calls for another 10 to 20 at least. Tornado watch, this is in effect for some time. Lets check it out. Weve had a few. Look for the bright red square. Nothing. Good news, but we will have more as the day goes on. Now, when it comes to the amount of rainfall, theres that purple. This is additional 10 to 20 inches of rain on top of what already has fallen. We can now add another 64,000 power outages. Just for the state of louisiana, over 560,000. I want to end with this, pamela. This is interesting. Records go back to 851. Of all the letters in the alphabet, if all the named storms that we have had, the worst, strongest, most powerful get retired. The names are never to be used again. There is not a letter in the alphabet that has more retired names than the letter i. Some of these obviously youll know. Isabel, irene, irma, ivan, ike, isador. Most likely, theres no doubt, ida is going to be on this list. They started naming the storms in 1953. The first official list. This was all men at the time. Sorry, ladies. Youre always waiting. It was 1979 before they started adding the womens names to it as well. But a very interesting fact. Were going to add ida to the list. Were adding ida to the list on the 16th Anniversary of katrina. You mentioned, tom, that it slowed down to 9 to 10 miles per hour. Explain to us why that is significant. When a storm puts on the brakes, you have a longer duration of just this banding of course not only the winds, youve got a longer duration, so the winds will push the power poles. Theyll push the trees. Theyll start works with the Roof Soffits and some of the shingles. Also not only the winds in One Direction for a period of time, you have a longer surge. Well probably talk about this later on. Well talk about the mississippi having problems. But we have a longer area of surge, so it allows that water to build hour after hour after hour. Thats why we like to see these systems move in and get out. The problem with fastermoving storms is you have to add that forward speed with the maximum Wind Speed for destruction. So, again, slower storms, it doesnt really matter when you have a cat 4, which is down to a cat 3 now. But really its about the rainfall. We saw this Slowmoving System with Harvey A couple years ago. After it made landfall as a category 4 in rockport, it was a rapid intensification, pretty much surprised rockport. Then it slowed to 2 to 3 miles per hour, and it did that for 18 to 20 hours, and we received 40, 50 inches. So this is a big concern. We need to get this in and out of here, or these Rainfall Totals will be extended to amounts we just dont want to see. All of this just mindblowing seeing these images. Tom, thank you. Lets go to cnns Jason Carroll In Houma, louisiana, not far from where the storm made landfall. What are you seeing, jason . Reporter its not just what were seeing. Its what were feeling. Its this incredible wind thats been barreling down On Houma for the past few years and continues to do so. Were on the backside of Hurricane Ida, and were expected to have these types of sustained winds for the next hour and a half, perhaps even two hours. Were told at some point out here, wed experience winds topping 100 miles per hour. What weve had to do is move back toward a safer location next to a brick structure, and all around us what weve seen, pamela, are these trees that youve seen here. All the trees around us, many of them have been uprooted. Power lines have been downed. Weve received reports from Emergency Crews that theyve received structural damage to buildings and homes out there. But its tough to see, if you look out there, you can see a number of the trees that have come down. But you can see what the visibility is like. The roads are too treacherous for Emergency Crews to get out there and assess the damage. They wont be able to do that for another few hours or so. So at this point all the folks In Houma can do at this point is just do what weve been doing the past several hours and just hunker down and wait for this to pass. Its been unlike anything ive ever experienced, and ive covered, you know, several hurricanes in the past. These sustained winds that have just been barreling down On Houma for the past several hours, its been its been incredible to experience. Unfortunately, the longer this happens, the weaker the trees become here in the area, the more damage is what were going to be seeing in the area. But, again, pamela, its going to be impossible to assess the amount of damage until these winds die down and Emergency Crews can get from where they are to out there to see what sort of damage has been left behind. We want to get you out of there, jason. Just quickly, i just want to listen to how it is where you are right now, so lets just listen to it. Unbelievable, jason. Get to safety. Thank you for bringing us the latest there. I know earlier you said that you had to move, and then a tree fell down just after. So just get to safety. Thank you. New orleans, the city that bears the scars of many hurricanes, cnns Brian Todd is there. What are you experiencing there, brian . Reporter pamela, getting more intense here on The Streets of New Orleans. Getting pounded with stronger winds, stronger rain. Look at the Rain Band that you can see down The Street in New Orleans. You can see some of the wind just swirling around here as the storm intensifies here. Its starting to get some flooding here. The water has gone up above my ankles. Flooding not too bad just yet. This is kind of a rainfall flood. Its not a Storm Surge Flood here in the French Quarter. The French Quarter is on higher ground than a lot of other sections of New Orleans. I just talked to some Emergency Management officials here. They say what theyre worried about is the storm is slowmoving and New Orleans has not gotten the brunt of it just yet as far as what its going to get later on today. Check out down here. Look down st. Louis street over here. You can barely see just a few yards down The Street there. Theres a light, some of these Hanging Lights that were hanging off this building, one of them just crashed down over there. Youve got flying debris all over The Street heres in New Orleans, some down here. And, again, visibility declining by the minute. Wind and rain getting worse. My team was just at the river area, the riverfront area, and we really couldnt transmit because the wind was so intense and we were getting knocked over pretty much. So we decided to fade inland a little bit into The Streets of the French Quarter, and we caught up with some of this flooding going on right here. Weve also been speaking to the Southeast Louisiana Flood protection agency, and theyre telling us that theyre very confident, as we get another really intense swipe of wind coming down The Street here, so bear with me. Theyre telling us they are very confident that the system of levees, floodgates, and Surge Gates is going to work very well, that its going to withstand this storm because they have spent between the Army Corps of engineers and other agencies, spent between 14 Billion and 20 Billion to fortify the levees, the stormgates and everything since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. They say its one of the most technologically advanced Coastal Protection Systems in the world. The concrete walls and floodgates are about more than 30 feet high. The concrete walls and the leavele levees extend several miles around New Orleans, so they are very confident its going to perform. As we see an Emergency Vehicle coming down The Street here, again, emergency teams not able to rove around as much. As it gets worse, fewer of them are going to be out. We were out a short time ago roving around down to my left here, and we came across several fire trucks and firefighters coming out of a building. I went up to them and asked them what happened. They said that a short in an Elevator Shaft caused some smoke to come out of the building, but No One was injured. They took care of the problem. So some Emergency Crews are still able to rove around, but thats not going to be the case for much longer because the storm is getting more intense here, pamela, as you can see. Visibility, rainfall just really pounding us right here at the moment. As you said, the worst is yet to come. That is the belief there where you are. Brian todd, thank you so much. People in louisiana may have to wait until daylight to see just how destructive Hurricane Ida is. Coming up, the president of plaquemines parish, kirk la piano, on his parish is handling the storm. Plus President Biden meets the families of 13 u. S. Service members killed in afghanistan last week as their bodies are returned home. I may not be able to tell time, but i know what time it is. [whispering] its grilled cheese oclock. 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The national Weather Service is reporting the water has gone over at least one levee. What can you tell us about that . Yes. We are separated by the mississippi river, so we have an East Bank and a West Bank of our parish. Our parish is 58 miles long from the tip of the top to the bottom. Were the parish that sticks out in the Gulf Of Mexico where if you look at the boot of louisiana, were that last parish that sticks out. And on the East Bank of our parish, there has been some overtopping of the levee by our pumping station. That has been a little concerning. We had ordered a mandatory evacuation for the whole side of the East Bank. I had spoken to some of the sheriffs deputies. They have assured me that they will try to go Door To door. We sent out an automatic robocall for any left in those areas. We have not received a 911 Distress Call from anyone. But it hasnt its almost to the highway, but its getting closer. So we want the residents to know that it could be a problem. Tell us overall what the conditions are like where you are. Well, we were set up to go on the first time, and we just lost power at our eoc. We were switching over to generator power. So conditions have deteriorated today, and it seems like its getting a little worse. Its constant wind, rain, and it looks like the storm has slowed somewhat, and that concerns us. Right. Tom sater, our meteorology, said it has slowed to 9 to 10 miles per hour. And as we know, that just makes it more dangerous. So help us understand. You know that this was coming your way. There was a lot of talk about this hurricane, how dangerous it could be. And it is, if not meeting, exceeding expectations. Why did you decide to stay and ride out the storm . Well, we have to stay at the eoc. You know, i have a contingency of workers who are here with me, and as soon as it lets up, were going to get out there and make an assessment of what were going to do. We have probably some problems on the West Bank of our parish from the back levees. The water inundates some of those levees and pushes on which is highway 23, which is my only highway for commerce up and down, you know, to Ingress And Egress in my parish. So were going to have some logistical challenges from these days. We know the powers out. About 7,400 of our residents are out of power. We just lost power at the eoc. So i would say thats the last leg of power up here. So im sure that number will increase. So we told our residents to be prepared to be without power for days on weeks. What are you hearing from other people in your community who stayed . How concerned are people right now where you are . Well, where im located, its whats called the hista system. Its a 100year Levee Protection that the corps has done some updates. Those are some Flood Gates that we have closed. We have closed off some of the sections of our levee on our highway. So we ordered a mandatory evacuation on friday, and then we increased that mandatory evacuation on saturday, moving it up north. So we thought we were pretty successful in getting people out. We saw a steady line of people heading north and evacuating to safe ground. So we hope that people heeded our warning and got out. Kirk lepine, thank you and Best Of Luck to zblu thank you. As Hurricane Ida rips across the louisiana coast, we will talk to a doctor who is riding out the storm at a hospital overwhelmed with covid patients. Youll jump for joy. Here, better protection costs a whole lot less. Youre in good hands with allstate. Click or call for a lower Auto Rate today. Its an important time to save. With priceline, you can get up to 60 off amazing hotels. And when you get a big deal. You feel like a big deal. Priceline. Every trip is a big deal. Mission control, we are go for launch. Tminus two minutes and counting. Um, shes eating the rocket. Copy that, shes eating the rocket. 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Switch to Xfinity Mobile and save hundreds on your wireless bill. Plus, save up to 400 when you purchase a new Samsung Phone or upgrade your existing phone. Learn more at your local xfinity store today. Before and after video paints a vivid picture of the damage Hurricane Ida is doing to louisiana right now. This is footage from Fire Station Number 12 in Saint Bernard Parish southeast of New Orleans. You can see the astonishing volume of water that ida pushed ashore. And In Houma, category 3 winds continue to pummel the area. Many trees are already down, and this is not over yet. The storm has slowed down. Its only moving to the northwest at 10 miles per hour. This increases the Flooding Potential as well as the length the winds will last inland. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards warned people to evacuate, but some decided to hunker down and ride it out, and that includes Holly Beason In Houma. Holly, youre joining us now. How are you feeling . Hi, pam. I tell you, i am absolutely terrified, and i have i have lived in,through blizzards, earthquakes in l. A. , a hurricane once on a cruise, but i have never dealt with something like this. And i live alone, and ive just had a [ inaudible ] lifted up in the air because we have so many floods. And, you know, i was going to talk to my neighbor. Theyre usually The Ones that tell me are we going to evacuate or are we not during all these storms, the 11 years that ive lived here. You know, he was saying to me, no, i think youre going to be okay. Youve got a sturdy house. Youre above ground. I think youre going to be fine. I thought he knows better than i do because hes from here. But, you know, pam, i hear this huge Crackling Noise about 45 minutes ago, and i walked to one of the windows, and one of my trees in my backyard had split in half, and it has crushed the top of my garage. So im going to have to have a whole new garage put on. Other branches are laying on top of where my Master Bedroom is. I have three huge Oak Trees in my Front Yard that are just old. Theyre old trees. Im scared to death. They can easily i mean its a big Front Yard, but they could easily fall over on my house. I have no power. I cant make Phone Calls out. This is terrifying. I i dont even i cant even explain this. I mean my pets are absolutely i mean theyre all underneath the bed. Im not going to get under the bed, but, you know yeah, where are you hunkering down in your house . Right now im in my Master Bedroom. Im here, and im trying to stay away from the windows and stuff. And if i need be, you know, well go into the bathroom and hunker down in the bathtub. Gosh. Youre alone. Youre on a walker. Youre seeing trees down. Its ridiculous. Is this more of a Wind Event or Water Event where you are . Its both. Its both. I mean for a while it was just wind, and then about not even an hour ago, pam, the water came in with it. And now were still getting the water and the rain, and these are 80mileanhour winds. These are strong winds. I mean my Patio Furniture that i had has flown off the patio. Thats gone. I have no idea where those are. This is just its terrifying. And its worse than you thought, right . If you had to do it all over again, would you have evacuated . I wish i had evacuated, i kid you not. Its not worth it. Its not. Its very scary, and i cant tell people enough, whoever is listening that, you know, when you do have the opportunity to evacuate, you should do it. And, you know, especially here in louisiana because, you know, when i first moved here 11 years ago, you know, Hurricane Season ended in october. Its just one thing after another. This is very, very scary. Listen, Holly Beason, we wish you the best. Let us know if you need anything. I imagine, like you said, what you described, that is absolutely terrifying. It is. And we just hope that you get through this safely, holly. Thanks for sharing your story with us. Oh, thank you so much for your time. Take Care And God bless. You too. Now to Baton Rouge and our lady of the lake regional medical center. Dr. Christopher thomas joins me now. He is a critical care physician. Dr. Thomas, thanks for joining us. Whats going on where you are right now . Good evening. Where we are right now is were preparing for what we believe will be a very significant event in Baton Rouge. We believe it will probably be the most significant event of our lifetime. We currently have a full hospital, but were the regional medical center, and so we are essentially acting in that role. We have over 700 providers in the hospital. 50 of those are physicians. 400 are nurses. 300 are nonclinical. Were split into two staffs. We will do one shift during the day, one shift at night, and we will alternate until we are able to get through this. Were also becoming very concerned about our southernmost neighbors, the hospitals that are already in the path here of ida are demonstrating some failures, whether thats roofs or whether its generators. We thankfully prepared for this after gustave. We have a natural Gas Generator that can do the entire hospital, and we have a Diesel Generator to back up the natural Gas Generator. We also put two heliports on in order for evacuation that can handle blackhawk helicopters. But we are concerned at what were hearing from our brethren in louisiana, and thats already on top of a really full hospital. But this is our job, and we will do it well. To your point, i mean how will you handle a new wave of medical emergencies during this storm . We have become very adept at creating room, at creating space. Sometimes you just have to get creative. We currently have 157 covid patients in hospital, of which those 75 are icu. But we will make room. We will use every bed available that we can to help those who are in the storm, and we will take our cues from the state when necessary. Over the next several hours and through the night, however, were going to be concerned about the patients who are in our hospital. As we expect now, really significant winds, and we would have liked for the storm to pick up in Pace And Move quickly through our area. But that does not appear that it will happen. I mean you have a hospital packed with covid19 patients. What is the feeling like in the hospital among staff and among the patients . I think the patients have normal trepidation as its a hurricane. I think the staff here in louisiana, particularly in this hospital, we know hurricanes. And so this part actually may feel a little bit more normal although scary in that we prepare every year for this. Its a drill we do. So it is odd to say that maybe the Hurricane Part of it feels a little bit more like normal business in august and september than covid does. But adding the two together is definitely stressful, and we worry about our Oxygen Supply and others. But like i said, weve done a really good job of preparing for an event like this. And as you said, it could be the most significant event of your lifetime. You mentioned the backup plans you have, the generator and so forth. Many of your patients are on ventilators or other machines requiring electricity. How many days will you be okay with generator power, and what happens after that . Yeah. One of the good news is that our supply, being Natural Gas and then moving over to a backup with diesel, provides us with a very long runway in. So we can tolerate a lack of electricity for a significant period of time. And our Contingency Plans are set up for that. Thats why we have a double backup system. But what that does mean is other facilities that are smaller will not have that kind of contingency, and we will have to be able to help them. Dr. Christopher thomas, thank you for all you and your colleagues are doing right now, riding out the storm in the hospital during a pandemic. Thank you so much. Yes, maam. Thank you. Well continue to follow the track of Hurricane Ida, but were also watching the situation in afghanistan tonight. Today the u. S. Launched a new strike in kabul hours before President Biden attended the dignified transfer of 13 fallen u. S. Service members. Youre in the Cnn Newsroom. Well be right back. The first full Prescription Strength Gel for powerful arthritis pain relief. Voltaren the joy of movement my plaque psoriasis. The itching. The burning. The stinging. My skin was no longer mine. My psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen. Painful. Emerge tremfyant™. With tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. 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This video you see on your screen shows the aftermath of the drone strike, which the pentagon says was a defensive effort to avoid more scenes like The One we saw this afternoon. 13 fallen Service Members returning home in flagdraped Transfer Cases. Each of them losing their lives in last thursdays deadly attack at the kabul airport. We are covering this from every angle. Cnns Sam Kiley is in doha, qatar. Alex marquardt is at the pentagon. Jeremy diamond is at the White House. Sam, first to you. What more can you tell us about the u. S. Air strike . Reporter well, we understand that this Air Strike was conducted in a residential area effectively into a compound. At least one vehicle was destroyed. The pentagon is saying that they understand that there was a secondary explosion. In other words, there was not just the impact of the missile strike, but then it set off some other kind of explosion, which theyre saying is an indication that this was indeed some kind of Bombing Apparatus ready for use against kabul international airport. And we know independently from our own colleagues, afghan colleagues on the ground, who have been reporting now for some hours a number of civilian casualties. The details of this remain very difficult to pin down with any kind of forensic detail. But this is a kind of disastrous moment for the american forces, but their justification will inevitably be that something much worse has been prevented. But nonetheless, this has been already condemned by the taliban not in and of itself but because of the lack of permission sought and information given ahead of the Air Strike. They made the same complaint following the Air Strike yesterday on the outskirts of ja laul abad, which according to the pentagon killed two and injured one. Both of those allegedly people involved in these bomb plots. Pamela . All right. Sam. I want to turn now to alex marquardt, who is at the pentagon for us. Alex, were hearing that centcom, the united states central command, has put out a new statement about the strike. Thats right, pam. It is quite the change in tone from central command, which does oversee this war in afghanistan. Not long after we learned about the strike earlier today, they put out a statement full of confidence saying that they were confident that they had hit their target, there they were still assessing the possibility of civilian casualties though they did not at the time have any indications that there are any. Of course now we are reporting that at least nine members of a single family were killed in this strike. And as sam alluded to, one possibility that centcom is raising is that it was the explosives in the car that could have led to the deaths of these civilians. I want to read to you part of the statement that we just did receive moments ago from centcom. It says, we are still assessing the results of this strike. We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of Explosive Material inside that may have caused additional casualties. It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further. We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of life. That line, pamela, it is unclear what may have happened, really quite remarkable. This is going to be yet another blow for the biden administration because they have obviously been pointing to these two strikes now against isisk as proof that they will go after this Terrorist Group in response to that attack on thursday at Abbey Gate that left scores of afghans killed as well as 13 american Service Members. But also the fact that the military has been pointing to these strikes as the kind of capability that they will be relying on in the future, this over the Horizon Capability as they call it, meaning that its coming from countries outside of afghanistan to continue to go after these terrorists. Now this latest strike, this latest over the Horizon Operation has left civilians dead, pamela. With children as young as 2 years old. Thank you, alex marquardt. Now on to jer my diamond at the White House. The president stood by for the dignified transfer of those 13 fallen Service Members and met with their family members. Whats the mood inside the White House . Reporter since thursday, since that Terrorist Attack that led those 13 Service Members dead, the mood inside the White House has been somber. It has been heavy. You have seen it on the face of the president as he has talked about the deaths of these Service Members, and you certainly saw it today as the president stood in silence as these 13 Transfer Cases carrying the remains of these Service Members were carried off of this C17 Aircraft and into these mortuary vehicles. Families of these Service Members were also in attendance, and you could you know, there was almost no sound as this was all going on other than cries of one woman at one point. The president , for his part, holding his hand over his heart as each of these Transfer Cases was taken off of the C17 Plane and bowing his head as if in prayer. This is the first these are the first combat deaths under President Bidens watch as commander in chief. The first dignified transfer that President Biden has attended as commander in chief. And certainly we know that this has been weighing on him. It is the reason why he has said he is planning to stick with that August 31st deadline. And of course the White House, including the president , have made very clear that there is still the possibility of additional attacks at kabul, and this is the most dangerous phase, frankly, of this entire mission. So the president certainly mindful of that. And, again, planning to stick with that deadline because he does not want to see any more Service Members serving right now in afghanistan to come home in these Transfer Cases in the way that he witnessed this movement today. Pam . Just a heartbreaking scene there. Jeremy diamond, alex marquardt, Sam Kiley, thank you. Louisianas coastal parishes are bearing the brunt of Hurricane Ida right now. Coming up, were going to talk to a sheriff whos riding out the powerful storm. Oh, my god bring a friend every month and get every month for 5. Boom 12 months of 5 wireless. Visible, wireless that gets better with friends. For people who could use a lift new neutrogena® rapid firming. A Triplelift Serum with pure collagen. 92 saw visibly firmer skin in just 4 weeks. Neutrogena® for people with skin. Get ready our most popular battery is even more powerful. The stronger, lastslonger energizer max. Life can be a lot to handle. This magic moment, but theres plenty of magic in all that chaos. So different and so new. Was like any other. You need an ecolab scientific clean here. And you need it here. And here. And here. Which is why the scientific expertise that helps Operating Rooms stay clean is now helping the places you go every day too. Seek a commitment to clean. Look for the Ecolab Science certified seal. Surveillance video from the grand Isle Marina in grand isle, louisiana, showing flooding from ida has the powerful category 4 hurricane made landfall with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour. Just listen to this rainfall and a Storm Surge from ida are causing a levee to overtop in plaquemines parish. Tonight, more than half A Million people are without power. That number expected to go up as idas winds are still thrashing the gulf coast, knocking down trees and Power Lines as it blows inland. One person i spoke to earlier In Houma said she is terrified right now. Timothy sonnier is a sheriff in l louisiana. Your parish has been feeling the brunt of ida for hours. What is your concern now . Right now the wind still continues. We had issued a mandatory evacuation a couple days ago. Theres still a lot of people back there. A lot of people back, and were getting calls of some roofs blown off of a lot of homes. What weve been able to do is do a little assessment between some of the gaps of wind, but it hand let up much. When this lets up, i guess my biggest fear is its going to be in the darker hours of the night, and im trying to get my guys out there so we can assess. So visibility is going to be rather difficult, and weve got a lot of downed Power Lines. So its just safety so we can clear some of these paths. We can start Search And Rescue and helping as many people out as we can. Are you receiving many calls for help from people who didnt evacuate . Well, yes. We received a lot of calls and some of them were close by. We were able to get to them. Some of them, the roadways are blocked, and we cant really get to them because of obstruction on some roadways. What is your message to those who decided to weather this storm . Well, you know, when the mandatory evacuation is issued, its highly recommended you leave because the problem as we explain to people, its very difficult for us to get to you right away, and everybody wants you out. But its hard for us to get to them because the roadways are block and trees are down so its difficult for us to maneuver and get to these areas. Just quickly, sheriff, is this what you thought it would be, or is it even more powerful . Well, we knew it was going to be a powerful hurricane when we were looking for the last couple days as this thing developed. Thats why between us parish president s, we made a decision to issue a mandatory evacuation. Things starting developing pretty fast the last couple days, and initially we ordered two zones of the parish to evacuate. In a matter of four hours when we seen how the thing developed we went ahead and issued a mandatory evacuation for the whole parish. All right. Sheriff, thank you for joining us. I can say this. My people are out there working hard and were trying to get out there to the people to help them. They are incredible for do sog in these dangerous conditions. Thank you so much, sheriff. All right. Thank you. At any moment now, were going to get a new update from the national Hurricane Center as ida moves across louisiana. We have reporters spread out across the state. You need an ecolab scientific clean here. And you need it here. And here. And here. Which is why the scientific expertise that helps Operating Rooms stay clean is now helping the places you go every day too. 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So many people are overweight now and asking themselves, why cant i lose weight . For most, the reason is insulin resistance, and they dont even know they have it. Conventional starvation diets dont address insulin resistance. Thats why they dont work. Now theres release from golo. It naturally helps reverse insulin resistance, stops sugar cravings, and releases stubborn fat, all while controlling stress and emotional eating. At last, a Diet Pill that actually works. Go to golo. Com to get yours. Im Pamela Brown in washington. You are live in the Cnn Newsroom on this busy sunday night. Welcome to our breaking news coverage. Hurricane ida is churning deeper into louisiana right now after slam ago shore just shy of a Category 5 storm. It is proving to be every bit as devastating as feared. At landfall, idas sustained winds were 150 miles an hour. Officially tying the strongest storms to ever hit the state. Ida has been even stronger than katrina, which in a cruel irony, devastated the state 16 years ago today. It is too early to asses