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so let s begin with cnn chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins. of everything i ve laid out, which is president biden s top priority? reporter: i think coronavirus is probably top of mind for the white house right now. we know president biden is going to give a major speech on that this week. also, alisyn, as you noted he has several things on his plate when he comes back to washington tonight following this holiday weekend. and tomorrow you will see the president go to new york and new jersey. both the states he has declared states of emergency and disaster declarations under way there right now in an effort to help with what we ve been seeing on the ground. and a lot of this he is going to tie to what he did in louisiana touring the damage there which is, of course, climate change. and his domestic agenda, something that we know will be at the forefront when lawmakers are back here in washington. but, alisyn, it s not just that. he is still dealing with afg ....
the first time ever has declared a flash flood emergency in new york city as one tornado touched down in new jersey. others in pennsylvania, new york and maryland. kind of weather, john, that this place never sees. no, we just don t see something quite like this. again, nine deaths now up here, which is more than when hurricane ida hit louisiana as far as we know. we may learn more from louisiana and mississippi, but nine deaths from what was a really bad rainstorm here tells you just how catastrophic it is. and i have to say it s not surprising based on what i ve seen on my way in here to you, which has been a little bit of an odyssey this morning. trees down everywhere. cars smashed from the trees. hopefully no one left in the cars. and then really, just cars abandoned everywhere. clearly people were caught in this, didn t expect it last night. they were out on the roads. the parkways the highways, and couldn t do anything. they got either their cars lite literally ....
emergency. that s a subway tunnel there. subway service is coming back this morning after it was suspended in a scene like that last night. imagine, hundreds are still stranded in stations across the city, and new york city saw rainfall worse. 50,000 olympic-size swimming pools in the course of just five hours. this is not normal, folks. these are live pictures from new jersey. that is flooding. communities up to their doors and windows, and that is a live rescue underway. first responders in an inflatable there going door to door, seeing if people need rescue at this hour. a tornado ripped through parts of gloucester county, new jersey. newark had its wettest day on record. records are being set virtually every day, folks. again, this is not normal. nearly all transit rail service has been suspended in new jersey. this morning united airlines says it is suspending operations from its hub in newark. that has tremendous repercussions for travelers across the country. all ....
we re so grateful to have you with us on this sunday. it is august 29. thank you for keeping us company here. hi, phil. hey, christi. alrighty. so let s talk about hurricane hunters right now. they are doing hourly updates at this point as hurricane ida zeros in on communities on the gulf coast. ida is already a powerful category 4 storm and it s still gaining strength. now, it will make landfall today bringing as much as 20 inches of rain to some areas with the potential for destructive storm surge and strong winds. now, yesterday bumper -to-bumpe traffic stretched for miles as people left their homes for safety. now, a strike today would fall exactly 16 years after hurrican katrina ripped through the arena. it s a coincidence not lost on many who decided to leave their homes. katrina, hey, i had to stand in the water and slept on a bridge for two days. fema trucks and generators are in the area as well. take a look there. the national guard has also been ....
the national weather service warning the storm could hit some places in southeast louisiana and make those places uninhabitable for weeks or even months. that warning just released. hurricane ida is expected to make landfall in that state, louisiana, as a category 4 hurricane tomorrow. almost exactly to the day, 16 years after hurricane katrina landed as a category 3. our team of reporters is covering the storm from all angles. nadia and jason are on the ground for us. let s begin with allison chinchar at the cnn weather center. what is the update from the weather center? brand-new update, showing gusts have ticked up a bit to 105 miles per hour. the forward movement is the same. northwest at about 16 miles per hour. it s a category 1 now, but it is expected to intensify and strengthen as it moves through the very warm waters of the gulf of mexico. likely becoming a category 2 sometime in the next few hours. a category 3 by this evening. then a category 4 by tomorrow ....