hospitalizations in the u.s. hit alarming heights not seen since the winter surge announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt substituting tonight and reporting from new orleans, tom llamas. good evening. i m tom llamas in for lester we are coming to you tonight from an american city in crisis and a region in need of help hurricane ida causing catastrophic damage. the view from above just a glimpse of the actual pain felt on the ground families in la place, louisiana running from ida s surge overnight, and today pulled from their homes in boats hospital staff caring for sick patients as parts of their buildings came apart in grand isle, ida s force and surge captured on camera in realtime and now a cleanup under way so people have some place to stay and tonight you ll meet the nurse who cared for dozens of babies in a nicu unit, unable to see her own children to help infants in need of all of this as new orleans faces a new type of disaster no power anywhere in
item now tropical storm, was ens and powerful. lashing the gulf coast with torrential rains and high winds. the entire city of new orleans is without electrical power. more than 1 million people. so far at least one death blamed on the storm but that number we re told could grow as the full scope of the tragedy is known today. at the same time, we are watching afghanistan. where we are now just hours away from the august 31st deadline for troop withdrawal and getting americans out. president biden is warning that the terror threat to cobbles airport remains high. this after the united states thwarted a rocket attack. you re watching outnumbered. with me emily, upon you and kaylee mcenaney, new york post columnist and fox news jupiter miranda divine. in the center seat, retired u.s. army infantry captain sean parnell is with us. he spent 485 days fighting along afghan-pakistan border. we are interested to get his take on everything. let s watch. what was left behind after
it could make the final days of evacuations even more complicated. focusing first on hurricane ida, it had been forecast to strengthen rapidly and over the past few hours, and it has done just that. just a little while ago the national hurricane center up graded the potentially catastrophic storm to category 4. it is forecast to slam the louisiana coast today hitting the state on the exact same date as hurricane katrina 16 years ago. the national weather service office in new orleans says storm surge and high winds could leave some locations uninhabitable for even weeks or months. both voluntary and mandatory evacuations have been ordered for several louisiana parishes as the national hurricane center warns of life threatening situations. officials say if residents are planning to leave, do it now. louisiana s governor is stressing the dangerous and historic nature of today s threat. when you talk about rain totals that could be up to 15, 16 inches in an isolated area above
dan hoffman with insight into the potential terrorist attack. griff jenkins live at the white house with new reporting coming in. reporter: good morning. the deadly debacle in kabul continues department of state saying to every american left in country, get away, stay away from the airport. the president issuing a warning in a statement, saying the situation on the ground continues to be dangerous and threat of terrorist attacks on the airport is high. our commanders inform me a attack is highly likely in the next 24 to 36 hours. pentagon spokesman john kirby echoing that. watch. the threats are real, dynamic and we re monitoring them real time. is it as serious as yesterday. it is deadly threat. i m not sure how any terrorist threat can t be serious. reporter: they used a reaper drone, over the horizon capabilities not naming them leading military experts saying exactly high level they are. here is what kirby had to say about them. the fact two of these individuals a
moments. we ll have live coverage once it begins. our team of reporters is covering this. let s begin with nadia in new orleans. we heard the player say some very serious, deliver serious warnings to residents. leave now or hunker in place. it will be very dangerous. people need to take warnings seriously. what are you hearing? reporter: wolf, you heard the mayor say don t expect emergency responders to risk their lives to get you in the middle of the storm. once the storm passes, they ll come out and the first priority is to clear roads of debris, especially around hospitals. if you re going to decide to stick it out, ride out the storm, you ll be doing so on your own. we have seen some business owners in french quarter boarding up their businesses, trying to prevent debris from flying. we know we ll have high wind speeds, you talk about a category four storm. we have seen people boarding up all morning long. look at the hotels. a huge tourist area. this is a line of hotel