we can also tell you that your window of time is closing. it is rapidly closing. and just like we said yesterday, by the time you go to bed tonight you need to be where you intend to ride this storm out. reporter: unfortunately, this area is no stranger to strong hurricanes. they are very familiar, of course, benchmark storms being katrina. we can t forget about the year of 2020 where four named storms wreaked havoc on the state of louisiana. remember that completely altered the natural barriers and defenses along the coastline of louisiana. that makes more storm surge a threat, especially where i m standing now. where the water comes in, it really has nowhere to go but sit here and pond and flood. so that is our concern. i am only standing at ten feet above sea level, of course, you can do the math there, phil and christi, a dangerous place to
two stories we are following this morning, the breaking news is that hurricane ida has strengthened now into a dangerous category 4 hurricane, taking direct aim at louisiana. and the latest advisory just moments ago, the national hurricane center is warning of life-threatening storm surge and catastrophic damage. meteorologist allison chinchar with the latest for us next. also developing this morning, the u.s. embassy in kabul is warning of a, quote, specific credible threat to u.s. citizens near the airport. this as president biden warns another attack is highly likely. this special edition of new day weekend starts right now. it s sunday, august 29th. thank you for joining us today. christi, thanks for letting me tag along on another major news
first taste of major hurricane ida. christi, phil, i used to tell my kids that monsters don t exist, but what we woke up to this morning is indeed with monster and it s only 100 miles from the coast of where i m standing right now. this storm, as allison so aptly put it, does not stop at the coast. anything that this touches, anywhere the water touches from the sky or from the ocean will be impacted by major hurricane ida as it makes its final approach. last-minute preps should be completed. there are mandatory curfew and evacuations in ter goan parish and the entire louisiana national guard has been initiated for this particular storm. a very sobering statement from the louisiana governor yesterday. take a listen. this will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in louisiana since at least the 1850s.
intensification it has to increase 35 miles per hour in less than 24 hours. we jumped 40 miles per hour in just six hours. six hours. we did rapid intensification in six hours when you normally do it in 24. the hurricane hunters are out. they are still investigating this system, trying to determine, okay, is this storm going to continue to strengthen? what are the highest winds? where is the center of the storm? they will look at it until landfall today, expected to be early this afternoon, a few hours from now. it is expected to make landfall as a category 4 storm in louisiana. now, we are starting to see some of those storm surge numbers begin to tick up. this is not the peak number. i want to emphasize that. most of these areas about two to three feet. but those numbers are going to continue to go up throughout the day. we are starting to see those outer bands also begin to spread into some of theers areas, not just louisiana, but mississippi, alabama, even areas of florida.
the highway. h we have highway 23 on the west bank, that s the only way in and out. highway 39 on the east bank of the parish is the only way in and out. those waters inundate those highways, it gives us grave concern. if something like that happens, what is the what are the options for an emergency response should people still have not heeded the evacuations warnings? by then we have rocked the levies that will allow us to get emergency vehicles to transport on, which is the river levee. we feel confident that we will be able to handle that. the water that is coming in, you know, we all we can almost count on it, but the problem is this storm stalls, we will have more trouble. if it continues on its forward path that we think it is, we may catch a break in the window and that water can recede. now, louisiana governor said