might this storm hit landfall? i would say honestly, sara, the next few minutes, likely the next ten minutes we ll get the official call from the national hurricane center. we are now starting to see that official eye wall begin to cross over land as we speak. you re starting to see a lot of the thunderstorms on the northern side also intensify, a lot more lightning bolts starting to pop up with this. so, again, i would say at this point landfall is under way. we are really going to see that announcement from the national hurricane center in the next few minutes as this storm continues. these impacts are stoill going o continue over the next several hours. the extreme wind warning has expanded into new territory, it extends until 10:15 a.m. this morning. the emphasis there is on the intense, incredibly strong winds that we are going to get in that area over the next few hours. you re looking at sustained winds in a lot of these areas, up around that 40-mile-per-hour range, but some o
capital lake, should it be necessary. the question becomes right now, alex, should this storm hit landfall and then sit there pouring more rain. 8 to 16 inches projected or the 20 inches in new orleans, is that even accurate? i would add one other thing. the storm s track is just west of new orleans. i m two hours west in baton rouge. if it were to wobble any closer at that wind punch catastrophic in the city center not just in the rural areas and swampy areas of louisiana. we re all watching that track so closely. the students on campus right now are being told by the administration to shelter in place. everything at lsu canceled through at least monday. that could change. the football team has already moved to houston. they have their first game of the season coming up next weekend. they re going to be flying out directly from houston to los angeles for that game. no one is coming back here. we re hearing pa announcements
appears to be donaldsonville, georgia and chatahoochie. you re right. part of the thing that makes this so interesting is the storm is still so strong at this point. you typically see an eye wall begin to collapse when you see a storm hit landfall like that. but, no, you re talking about inland communities, communities an hour off the coast of florida and into portions of southern alabama, portions of southern georgia. we still have this very defined eye wall. as a result, we are talking about just these very strong winds, these rain bands. it does seem like this storm is staying incredibly compact so far. that s gonna happen when you have something that hits the land with such power, such low millibars. we talked about 919. it s the lowest we ve seen. shepard: we ve gone from
keep gas prices down. that s the refinery we re talking about. that s the big one that is shut down and port arthur is home to that refinery. a lot of rescues still going on and authorities don t know the situation in a lot of these neighborhoods, that s why the coast guard is back out today to take a look and see if anyone still needs help. thanks very much. blake mccoy for us in port arthur. let s turn now to lieutenant commander matt shaver from the u.s. coast guard who joins us by skype. you re in the midst of rescues right now? that s correct, right now i m still currently in houston operating out of the air station here. but we ve been flying rescue missions since the storm hit landfall. based on the tallies from yesterday, the coast guard has made more than 4500 water rescues in the entire region. tell us about the situation in beaumont right now? i know we definitely do have crews out in beaumont responding
but after the main part of this storm hit landfall early friday night, it was 165 miles an hour. but it seems the strongest hit some sparsely populated area which was is good news. mexico s president saying that the first reports seem to indicate there is not a lot of damage or as much damage as one would have expected with the storm of this magnitude. still, once it gets light out as it s starting to now, crews need to go out and assess the damage especially in some low lying isolateded areas. a lot of fishing villages up and down the coast that may have been hit hard by this. but the two main population centers, manzanillo and puerto valla vallata, those places not hit as hard as some feared. manzanillo might have been hit a little harder. reports of downed trees, flooded roads. there might be some landslides this and around that area. puerto vallata, a lot of tourists got stuck there unable to get in and out because the flights were canceled. so a lot of people hunkered down