Transcripts For MSNBC American Voices With Alicia Menendez 20240710

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We have been keeping an eye on a number of alerts of damage from the storm, and power is the primary issue, and entergy is the power company, and they are out of power and its causing an imbalance in transmission. This is a compounded problem because they need that for a lot of things, including Pumping Water away from the levees. Let me be clear, we have no reports of damage to levees. Theres reports of Flash Flooding and an emergency that has been issued by the weather service, but thats not pursuant to damage of the levees. We will keep an eye on that and continue to update you as the evening goes on. We have plenty of correspondents out in the field, and Ali Velshi is in New Orleans, and janessa web, well start with you. What can you tell us . We are dealing with a destructive and deadly Storm System and its dark across Southeast Louisiana, and we saw the storm make landfall eight hours ago and its downgraded to a cat 3. Can you see that were dealing with severe weather tonight, even across portions of New Orleans into Baton Rouge. The problem is this storm has not lost its force just yet and the winds will continue to be an issue along with Flash Flooding. I do want to mention we still have the eye of the Storm System that continues to make its way across the area, but the problem is that throughout the night were seeing bursts of gusts right now getting reports of 90mileperhour winds coming out of New Orleans and the track still going to be a problem even for the Baton Rouge area. The latest track from the national hurricane center, we do have sustained winds of 110 miles per hour, and thats over eight hours ago the storm roared in with 150mileperhour winds, so it has not died down very much. Joshua, the issue is that we have seen a dramatic slowdown, and coming out of the North Northwest at 9 miles per hour, so that movement is not very fast and that is going to allow for prolonged moisture across the area. New orleans getting a little lucky right now as this system is staying parallel to that area and Baton Rouge, and were going to continue to see kind of that movement throughout the overnight into the early morning. The problem is its not going to lose its Moisture Content as it makes its way into the Mississippi Valley and into tennessee. Just about a week ago we dealt with that deadly flooding across tennessee and we are forecasting at least five to ten more inches in that area, so this even makes its way to the northeast. Theres a lot of moisture that will be a problem and that Flash Flood emergency, we are going to be watching that throughout the overnight hours. We have seen Rainfall Rates about one to two inches across la place, louisiana, and places in New Orleans seeing fast rainfall coming down at this hour. The wind gusts still an issue. On top of that you have Flash Flood warnings and Flash Flood watches for 14 Million people, and now they are starting to extend in the nashville area. I know people are a little bit letting their guard down because the Storm System has been downgraded. Its not the time, even tropical storms can cause massive damage, and thats what we are still going to be seeing. Joshua, i think we will see a completely different environment across Southeast Louisiana when people wake up in the morning. Thank you. Thats Janessa Webb starting us off with the forecast on Hurricane Ida. And now lets get west of New Orleans, and thats where we see Morgan Chesky joining us live. Reporter yeah, janessa made a good point, and thats when The Sun Rises and thats going to be the first real look ida, and some of the wind gusts that were reported at 140 miles per hour, as it roared through this area, and part of the Compounding Problem Joshua is the fact that the western side of Idas Eyewall seemingly stalled over this area for a little bit, and that meant you didnt get that temporary break, but you continue to get massive winds, and we have watched roofs be ripped off and smaller structures outside collapse, and we have heard reports im seeing blue and red lights and thats a good sign because its fortunately a good sign because it means Police And Fire trucks are able to go out and survey the damage. We will have a much clear sign tomorrow, but you can see the lights in the distance behind me, and thats the hospital, that might be one of the few structures left in the area that has the generators to keep that power up and going. The people that live close that we have been in Touch Wit they have been without power since about noon today, and its a painful few days ahead for those that live in the area, joshua. Morgan chesky, thank you very much from homa, louisiana. As morgan mentioned, we are still waiting for a few details on the extend of the damage this evening. The clearest picture we have of the damage is in New Orleans when the citys utility, entergy, they are without power, and not only the Pump Drinking Water into the city, but also to drain Storm Water, and this is one of the concerns with keeping the levees intact in New Orleans, and lot of work has been done since Hurricane Katrina, and we have no indication that we are anywhere near that. So thats at least merciful news at the moment, and this is a bigger story than just what is happening in louisiana. The hurricane also affects mississippi, and its expected to make its way more in that state in the hours to come, and an Emergency Declaration has been issued across the state and in the Capital City of jackson, and there are winds and flooding and possibly even tornadoes. Lets continue with the major of jackson, mississippi. Mayor, good evening. Welcome. Good evening and thank you for having me. How are things in jackson right now . How are you all doing . Presently things are calm, but we are bracing for the worst. We are having our public works crews go out along with our Fire And Police department in order to prepare for the impending storm. Talk about what you have had to deal with not only with getting ready with the storm, but also covid. Thats an ongoing concern as you know in the southeast and thats got to compound what already stands to be a very difficult emergency situation. Yes, you make a very poignant point considering the fact that our Hospitalization Rate already stretched beyond its capacity, so that intensifies our concerns at this moment. In addition to having concerns related to our Hospitalization Rate, like all the impacted communities, we are concerned with our infrastructure, wanting to make sure it holds up with the storm coming our way. We are fearful of the other communities, not only how it will impact our power but our Storm Water systems and our Waste Water systems and drinking distribution systems. All of those things are areas of concern. Were trying to communicate early and often with our residents making certain that they dont go in lowlying areas. If they see standing water, dont walk, swim or ride in it. These are the type of this is the type of advice that we are issuing to them on a consistent bases. Mayor, did you get the sense people were listening to the advice and the types of preparations they made, and are the people in your town taking the proper kind of precautions . Prayerfully we hope so and you dont know how much people heeded that advice until later, and its usually easy to tell if people are heeding that advice by the look of the evacuation or not, and sometimes living in coastal states we take for granted that this is another storm and we will be able to survive it, and we ask that people never let their guard down. I was just going to ask you about that very thing. I am from south florida, and i know over time with every new set of Snow Birds that moves to town, theres amnesia that kick in, where people forget the past hurricanes and past floods, and i am wondering what you see in terms of Jacksons History with severe weather particularly as Climate Change has changed that severe weather, in terms of whether or not people get how severe the situation is right now, or whether you are concerned about collective amnesia . Well, we share we have seen and endured our fair share of emergencies, but what we have to communicate is that it only takes one time, right . It only takes one bad storm, one bad Weather Event in order to have a catastrophic outcome, and so its important that we continue to communicate, and its important that we work in lockstep with not only our City And County administrators, but also with the state, so this is a time that requires unity. Im asking that the very best of jackson shines through, that residents check on elderly individuals that they check on individuals who may not have the same level of mobility that they may enjoy. Very briefly, mayor, before i have to let you go, what are you expecting to see and what are you most concerned about in terms of the most damage to the city when It Sun comes up Tomorrow Morning . We are concerned about the amount of rainfall and how it will impact our Storm Water systems. We are concerned about the high winds, how that will impact debris flying across the city and potentially knocking out power. Our concerns are similar to those seen in other cities and we are making certain that we have personnel in place to best assist and mitigate the damage coming our way. Mayor of jackson, mississippi, mr. Mayor, please Stay Safe and thank you for making time for us tonight. We are continuing to follow the situation up and down the gulf coast, including in New Orleans. It has been a little challenging to get our live shot with Ali Velshi, and we will get to him as quick as we can. Water, what is kind the bigger and fiercer storms we have been seeing . We will get to that when our Special Coverage continues on msnbc. Unique. Thats why they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. [ nautical Horn Blows ] i mean just because you look like someone else doesnt mean you eat off the floor, or yell at the vacuum, or need flea medication. Oh, yeah. Thats the spot. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, liberty, liberty, Liberty Music playing. Theres an america we build and one we explore one thats been paved and one thats forever wild but freedom means you dont have to choose just one adventure you get both. Introducing the Allnew 3row Jeep grand Cherokee L jeep. Theres only one. vo this is more than just a building. Jeep grand Cherokee L its an aipowered Investment Firm with billiondollar views. A cuttingedge datasecurity enterprise. 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I think its just really about to continue on here, particularly as the winds start to weaken, we are in for a few more days of heavy rainfall as the storm moves throughout the united states. The way this storm has developed, we were speaking earlier tonight with Bill Karins who is finally off duty before his earlymorning shift tomorrow, and a lot of things about the storm caught his attention and mine, and part of the fact is it has been so unusually resilient after making landfall, and the Eyewall And Structure has held together and what do you make of the way this storm has been behaving since it made landfall . Its typical for storms that make landfall and they are able to remain partially over the ocean and near the coast, and they are able to still get that main Energy Source from the warm waters as they slowly start to make landfall. How much of this do we attribute directly to Climate Change as to the cyclical nature of weather . There was a piece in the Washington Post that stated for every Degree Celsius that the Air Heats up, its able to hold 7 more moisture, and that makes the precipitation, for lack of a better word, heavier, during storms and it allows there to be more precipitation and more moisture in the air. How directly, how precisely based on what we know now can we attribute the strength of the storms to Climate Change, as opposed to the cycles of the earth . Well, as you mention, the gulf is really warm right now. Its particularly five degrees above average, but some component of that is due to humaninduced Climate Change to date, and the amount of that is dependant on the individual storm and time of year. What we have seen with recent storms going back to Hurricane Harvey and hurricane florence, is these increased Ocean Temperatures can actually increase the amount of rainfall in these storms by about 5 to 10 , and thats due to Climate Change. What that means is that a storm is raining about 5 more than it would have if not for Climate Change. Of course each year is different. We will have to look back at the storm after it is kind of done, but theres growing evidence that hurricanes like this are increasing their heavy precipitation amounts, not just in the acumulative amount throughout the lifetime of the storm, but also in the hourly Rainfall Rates. Recent storms, it ranged from 5 , and in some cases looking back at Hurricane Harvey from a few years ago, approaching 20 more rainfall. That seems to be at the crux with longterm issues of how we deal with Climate Change and severe weather. I remember from growing up in florida is trying to secure our homes from strong winds, and making sure wind could not get underneath the roof and blow it off and now from what you are describing and in terms of the intensity of the rain, its like being able to keep the ground under us, and it changes with how we live with rising water . Yeah, these storms, hurricanes, when they make landfall are particularly damaging from a Water Standpoint because in addition to the surge that we have been talking a lot about today, you have additional amounts of rainfall that comes from the storm itself, and often times these impacts from the rain can last for days. As the storm continues to rain as it moves inland, often times water can rush in the rivers, and flood a few days after the storm. This is something that we need to continue to watch. Before i let you go, what are you expecting for the rest of the Hurricane Season . As i look out right now, the tropics are quite active. You have tropical storm storm julian, and another system that seems to have a mild chance of forming off the coast of north carolina, so it looks like the season will remain rather busy. Yeah, were in the middle of the Hurricane Season now so we have a few more weeks until we are at the statistical peak of Hurricane Season, and we have to keep our eye out in the tropics, and its possible there will be more storms this week and we need to keep an eye on that because the season is just get into its main most active month in september. Professor Kevin Reed of stoney brook university. Thank you. Thank you. Lets get to Janessa Webb with the latest on this storm. It has been downgraded in categories somewhat, is that right . Yeah, now a category 2 hurricane, but the impacts are still the same. I do want to touch on what you were just talking about with the Climate Change and the Storm System. Now, ida already made two landfalls. We saw the topography, and the Land Movement of this did not budge The System and it continues to maintain its force and as it went into the central gulf it had the good water that allowed it to get energized and acted like Octane Fuel and that is what allowed this system. We are seeing portions of the bayou. This is allowing The System to go over land and still rev up. We are seeing it downgraded and the reason for that is the eye is losing its force, and the dirty side, the East Side of The System is still dropping quite a bit of rain. And in New Orleans, really getting lucky because the Storm System is running parallel. I do think the western side of the storm will get lucky as well even for Baton Rouge, and the rain will stay on the East Side. Look at the track right now. Sustained winds are still very gustying, up to 110 miles per hour, but dealing with the slow movement. By Tomorrow Morning this will be downgraded to a cat 1, but still the tropical moisture will still inbound place, and this is a powerful system. As it makes its way even in the midatlantic northeast, it will cause problem for the next week. Look at some of the these rainfall totals, jonathan. Were talking about, still, at least five to ten inches. The story, it just does not stop in louisiana, parts of the deep south, and this will be a continuous story all the way through thursday afternoon. Jonathan . Thank you, Janessa Webb for the latest update as the storm has been downgraded to category 2 hurricane. Much more to come. A perfect time to talk to the man in charge of Relief Efforts 16 years ago, when the levees broke there. Are they strong enough this time to protect the city from Hurricane Ida . You are not to come out until you receive more information from the city of New Orleans. Its experience our advance Standards Safety Technology on a full line of vehicles. 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First of all, we have news of what we believe is the first, at least reported, death related to Hurricane Ida. It happened in prairieville, and according to the Ascension Parish sheriffs office, the deputies received reports of somebody who was apparently injured by a Falling Tree at a home near highway 621 in prairieville. Deputies arrived and confirmed the victim was deceased. Presumably we may see more such fatalities as the water from the storm loosens roots from trees and blows them over, and so were not sure what was behind the downing of the tree, but the upshot is we have heard of our first hurricanerelated fatality for Hurricane Ida. The power is out in the city, and the power being out is a problem on multiple levels, one being the pumps that keep them moving out of the city, theres no power to the puplz. And entergy is trying to get the Power Back connected. But in New Orleans, you are not getting Power Back at all. The utility is assessing the damage and identifying a path forward to restore power, and according to a Release Power will not be restored this evening, but we will continue to work to remedy. The issue is that when this happened the demand for Power And Generation of power imbalance, and thats what knocks the power out and the power is most urgently needed to pump the water out of the city so thats where the energy is going to go right now, so unfortunately, if you are in New Orleans its rather unlikely you will be getting Power Back tonight. Also if you are in the city, the hotline for the Sewage Water Board is down. 5048648266 is the number to call. People in much of louisiana and mississippi are feeling much of Hurricane Ida tonight. Lets hear from mr. Mitchell. How are things looking where you are . Is the power out . Yeah, we can tell ghost stories, in you want . No, i scare to easy. We mentioned the power is out across New Orleans as well. Yeah, you know, the Power Companies and public officials have been warning about Power Outages, i think pretty much everybody expected it to happen. I know i did. Most people in Baton Rouge assume they are going to lose power at some point, and it maybe for long time. David, i wonder what your sense of how we were talking earlier about development in that area, and part of the concern for people who live along the gulf coast, louisiana, mississippi, parts of florida and alabama, and its that they are becoming less and less inhabitable. What do people think long term, living in Baton Rouge, and has the climate continues to change and are people expecting to be able to stay for the next few years . Well, you know, thats an interesting question and i have had friends from out of state ask me that question several times in the last several years, and i guess, you know, i dont think most people have fully grasped or grapple with the idea that you cant live in louisiana, and frankly i am one of them. Part of me is, like, you know, if you dont have a porch, it has to be on the water, and Baton Rouge is where it is for a reason, and its by the water in the gulf of mexico, and i feel like there has to be a way to make it habitable. We have trends going on at the same time, and as a state we need to figure out how to grapple with it. Seems like it will have even further enforcing of levees and pumps and everything else, and its a question of how were going forward in the current environment. I dont want to keep you too much because if the power is up it means you are talking to me on a cell phone, and you need that for other things, but i want to ask you about if there are particular parts of towns or neighborhoods or Business Districts or historical districts that the city puts extra attention on, just for those not familiar with Baton Rouge, if the city puts particular focus on something when a hurricane is coming . Baton rouge is far from the coast, and its rare we get hurricaneforce winds here, so this is a little bit on the high end, i would say, for a hurricane for Baton Rouge. So the wind element, it seems to be the biggest thing so far, and as a hurricane, thats everywhere, its all over the place. As far as flooding, the Amy River Basin which is to the east mr. Mitchell, im sorry to have to interrupt you. I apologize for interrupting you, and we are having a problem with our connection with Alley Velshi all night long, and were getting to him now. Can you hear us, Ali Velshi . We have all a lot of experience doing this, and we are constantly evaluating the safety. When i was talking to you earlier suddenly things got very windy around where we were to the point where we wanted to reposition, and we are still on Canal Street just to give you perspective. The Harrahs Casino is over there and was behind me, so i just moved about a block over, so this is downtown louisiana, the French Quarter is behind me, and i heard you talking about the power company, and for the purpose of High Voltage when theres a Load Imbalance its the equivalent of a Fuse Or Breaker going on, and The System shuts down transmission so you dont end up with problems, and thats what has happened. Now, this is complicated on a lot of levels in part because we have been reporting for weeks about the number of people hospitalized in this state with covid. It has relatively low vaccination rates and relatively high rates of hospitalization, and most hospitals, we hope, have enough Backup Generation capability, but remember one thing specifically about covid, joshua. If you are on a ventilator, ventilators require power, and so this becomes an issue as well in hospitals in the area, and as you said, entergy is trying to redirect the energy towards the sewers and the Water Department in the city, and they have made it clear that nobody else is getting any power in the city overnight if you dont operate with a generator. You can see, for instance, theres a building behind me up there that has power. That is generated power. Its not city power. There are little place here and there that have backup power, and hotels, for instance, or an Office Building will have Backup Generation, and residences are gone. And the backup was gone earlier because trees or poles came down and took it down. And we had the first report of a death in Baton Rouge because of a tree, and we dont know if the tree was uprooted or as i was reporting to you earlier, and we have seen trees just broken, or large parts of the trees that just have come down. So what we are seeing in New Orleans in particular is more damage than what was expected. This is a city for 16 years to the day has been bracing for flooding, for the fact that most of the city is below sea level. Im in the one part of the city that is fairly high, and the Mississippi River over there, and Lake Pontchartrain behind me, and thats what they are preparing for and there was a sense they avoided that with this particular storm, but these winds have been high. They have been devastating. I have been feeling them now for nine or ten hours. It was pretty intense. I came here overnight, when i got up i did not get up, i drove from houston and i have been up all night, and i was driving around New Orleans watching people walking around and walking their dogs and jogging, and this morning it seemed normal, and tonight its crazy. If they did not leave, they have been told they cant get help and now they dont have power. Thats the situation right now in the city of New Orleans, and we, as you can see from the maps you have been showing, we are not even in the direct path of this thing. This has been a much more devastating hurricane than people thought it was 12 hours ago, particularly in the city of New Orleans. Joshua . Object lesson as to why Evacuation Orders are what they are, and the number of threats you could face and the Power Outages are significant, and we heard from a doctor at a Childrens Hospital in New Orleans that they are dealing with issues as well and they had to move to part of the hospital because another part of the hospital is without power as is downtown New Orleans, where we find msnbcs Ali Velshi. Thank you. Well catch our breath and get more information on what is happening and well continue our coverage just ahead. Stay close. Ead. Stay close [truck horn blares] vo the subaru forester. Dog tested. Dog approved. Welcome to allstate. You already pay for car insurance, why not take your home along for the ride . Allstate. Here, better protection costs a whole lot less. Youre in good hands with allstate. 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Call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, Mouth Or Tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or Eye Pain occur. Take a stand and start a new day with trelegy. Ask your doctor about oncedaily trelegy. And save at trelegy. Com. This is a gamechanger, who dares to be fearless even when her bladder leaks. Our softest, smoothest fabric keeping her comfortable, protected, and undeniably sleek. Depend. The only thing stronger than us, is you. Open talenti and raise the jar. To gelato made from scratch. Raise the jar to all five layers. Raise the jar to the best gelato. Youve ever tasted. Talenti. Raise the jar. It was 16 years ago that Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf and the coast. More than 1,800 people died. Since katrina the Levee Systems that protect New Orleans have been rebuilt at a cost of 15 billion. Despite Minor Flooding in the city, it seems they are holding steady. One has run over, but there are no reports of damage. Power in New Orleans remains a real concern. A statement from the power company, entergy says the Pay Power will not be back in the city tonight. Good evening. Good evening. What is your sense of how the city is doing so far with Hurricane Katrina since the power is knocked out and it doesnt look like it will be on anytime soon . I wont know until the morning, and i was listening in to a radio station, and a lot of folks were calling from frederick, and Theres Lot of structural damage out there. One person called in and said there may be a case of a transmission line, and thats one of the big Silver Towers and when one of those go down it could take days to put them back up, and sometimes when we lose those it could be out in the marsh. That being said, its going to be a challenge to get that grid back up with the high winds that went through New Orleans. I think we may have higher winds in ida than when katrina came through New Orleans. This will be a big Wind Event as well as the continuation of the challenges with the Rain Water flooding the streets that would normally flood through a heavy thunderstorm, and if they get over ten inches of rain they will be in trouble with the pumps out. It seems like we are not in the same situation where we are concerned about the levees breaking open, but rather we are concerned about the levees flowing over especially if we cant get the power on to get the pumps working, is that right . Thats correct. The levees were constructed with Great Engineering Led by the corp engineering, and it was great work and the levees were put in to help the surge, and we dont have that problem. We are going to continue to have a problem with the Rain Water, because if the bumps go out, you cant pump it throughout the city, and thats going to be big Challenge Tomorrow for them to get the sewage pumps out of the city, and making sure all the Sewage Lines are back up and running to bump that out. One thing they did do after katrina, most of the hospitals did get large generators to run the hospitals, so i heard there was a problem at one of them and that should be able to be fixed. Fema has the capability to bring in the prime power from the Corp Engineers, and they should be able to get the critical infrastructure they need to run hospitals and run the pumps at the stations, but those Pumping Stations take a lot of power. But prime power from the Corp Engineers have big generators and should be able to get that back online. Sense is of how well well be able to respond to this emergency. I go et The Feeling that from when you had to deal with Hurricane Katrina, im from florida, we had Hurricane Wilma that year, from then to now we have a different picture of just how important professionalized Emergency Management really is, and what its like when you dont have that in place. We can see the difference now. I wonder what your sense is of how well we handle emergencies like this now compared to when katrina hit. Well, we live and learn. We invested a lot of money in making sure our parish officials are trained in the Emergency Management system. They go off to professional Schools Led by fema and the department of homeland security. Most of those parishes have new headquarters built after katrina. If you cant talk, you cant coordinate. Most of those have good communications, as well as the investment thats gone into the Levy System and the storm control system. We see that paying off. So the city is a lot more resilient now in that aspect than it was, but at the end of the day, you remember what happened to katrina. The levies broke, and 80 of the city flooded. So that part has been fixed as far as the infrastructure. The thing that worries me now, theres been some reports, i heard on a local radio, of some barges loose in the river. And barges, we had incidents in the past where barges will hit a levy and break it. So hopefully they can get those damn barges under control. At one point in time, the ferry down in st. Bernard parish was loose. So that could continue to be a problem. Right now, theres a lot of people, the National Guard, the entire state National Guard is mobilized. Fema has done a great job getting ready. Now we have to get individual assistance to people. We need to change that, if youll give me just a second. Very briefly, sir. Right now, people will have to request individual assistance with no power. Fema needs to change that. The House Of Representatives needs to change the rules, because when people had power, they could have requested assistance from fema and have a case number. Right now we have about 700,000 People Tomorrow without power or who are evacuated someplace trying to get online after the governor requested individual assistance. That needs to be fixed. Right. Lieutenant general russel honore, we appreciate you making time. Thank you very much. Lets get to dr. Patel, the chief medical officer in New Orleans. As we mentioned, a number of the medical centers are dealing with the same power Outages Everyone else is dealing with. So we want to speak to you this evening. How are yall doing . Do you have any power . Are you operating on generators . Whats the situation where you are . Thanks for having me. We are operating on generation power. We had a planned switchover this morning, and we have Generator Capacity that can cover us through this storm. We can operate fully on Generator Capacity for about three weeks continuously. Talk about what your preparations were like for this hurricane, particularly since youre dealing with way more covid cases than you would like to be dealing with, and still have to deal with that in addition to the aftermath of this storm is going to be, how did you prepare this time . Absolutely. Its been a challenge, and i think thats been the biggest variable compared to the normal preparations. We have a robust Emergency Management structure. We practice, drill, prep, we do all of those things. This year with the pandemic its been a different challenge. Its a different variable, with surges of the pandemic happening, that have complicated our preparation activities. So its been a challenge. Weve been resilient, but it remains a challenge in the next couping days. What about dealing with water . All eight Transmission Lines to New Orleans went out. Theyre trying to power the pumps to prevent catastrophic flooding. How concerned are you about the impact of rising Water Youll have to do after the storm is gone . Absolutely. I think the water is going to be a concern. I think a large portion of this is how it affects people, both patient, staff, everyone that needs to come and go to the hospital, first responders, et cetera. I think all of those people are going to be impacted by the water and the rapidity which it can drain out of the city. Were all sort of waiting for the daylight to see where we stand, and be able to make an assessment based on how things look tomorrow. What is is the one thing you wish more people in New Orleans did or stopped doing that would make your job easier after the hurricane . Whats the one thing the public should be doing to prevent unnecessary Injury Or Death . Well, right now with the pandemic, i think the easy answer is get vaccinated. Because the pandemic is putting a strain on us that, again, it remains a very difficult one to address. You know, when you cant prepare for that variable as much. So vaccinating is probably the single one biggest thing that anybody can do to ensure you have medical care when you need nit an emergency situation, during a natural disaster such as this, all of those times. Hospital resources, we want to be ready for you, but we have to support the surge of people that come in after these disasters. So dealing with the pandemic and the best way to do that is vaccination. Briefly, other than that, we heard from the mayor of jackson, mississippi, hes heard about people using generators inside rather than outside, with a significant risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. Anything else you would ask people to do or not do to keep safe . Traveling through flooded waters. Streets can appear much shallower and theyre deep. The water can lift your car up and move you. And live wires can be this that water, as well. So Water Danger is something that people need to appreciate as they deal with flooded streets and neighborhoods. Dr. Patel, Stay Safe. Wish you all the best in the days to come. Thank you very much. Theres much more us to talk about. Plenty of Breaking News and developments out of New Orleans. 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