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Ida Expected To Make Landfall In Louisiana As Category 4 Hurricane; U.S. Embassy Issues Security Alert At Kabul Airport Due To A "Specific, Credible Threat" At Multiples Areas; Hurricane Ida Rapidly Gaining Strength. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired August 28, 2021 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Glad you're with us tonight. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Any storm potentially of historic proportion right now Hurricane Ida rapidly intensifying in the Gulf, expected to slam into the Louisiana coastline tomorrow as an extremely dangerous category four hurricane. And this comes 16 days, 16 years to the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall there.

Louisiana's Governor John Bel Edwards warning people tonight in his state, time is running out to prepare. And Ida could be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit that state since at least the 1850s.

Just moments ago, all flights at New Orleans International Airport tomorrow have been cancelled, all of them. We're covering all the updates on this storm this evening.

Also, the major breaking news we're following this hour out of Afghanistan. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul just moments ago issued a security alert at the Kabul airport telling all U.S. citizens to leave that area immediately because of a specific and credible threat. This comes just hours after a new warning from President Biden did another terrorist attack at the Kabul airport is, "highly likely" in the next 24 to 36 hours.

And after the Pentagon confirmed two high profile ISIS-K targets were killed in a drone strike overnight, that retaliation for Thursday's terror attack that killed 13 U.S. servicemembers and at least 170 others. More on that in a moment. But first, let's get toward Jason Carroll. He's in Houma, Louisiana. This is near where Ida is expected, Jason, to make landfall tomorrow. They're saying now as possibly a category four hurricane. Are people still there?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there are a few who are still here, still holding on even given that Houma where I'm standing right now could end up being Ground Zero when Hurricane Ida ends up making landfall. That is partially the reason why, what you're seeing right now is basically a ghost town out here. We've seen some boarded-up buildings, but certainly not all the buildings here in town. We've seen some sandbags here and some of the doorways.

Houma and the surrounding area, Poppy, as you know, under a mandatory evacuation. I spoke to the sheriff a little while ago, he predicts anywhere between 60 and 80% of the residents who live here have in fact heated that evacuation order, but certainly not everyone. And you've heard, we've heard from the governor who is really urging people to get out. He says time is simply running out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D), LOUISIANA: Where you go to bed tonight, you need to be prepared to ride out the storm. And the storm is going to be very severe. Storm surge is going to be up to 15 feet, which is going to test all of our protection systems down along the coast, which is why we're evacuating people from those coastal areas, the ones that you were just referring to is the ones that will be uninhabitable for some period of time to come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: So, Poppy, you may have seen that man waving in the shop behind me. He lives in that house right there. He plans to stay. And if you look across the street there in that brick building there on the second floor, a man by the name of Jason, the other Jason, came down to say hello. He plans to stay as well. And of course, this is not what emergency officials want to hear. They want to hear more from people who are deciding to heed the warnings and leave rather than those who are deciding to stay.

HARLOW: Jason, we appreciate you being there, of course, but be careful as the storm gets closer and closer and thank you for your reporting. We'll talk to you in just a little bit.

Let's go to Tom Sater, he's in the CNN Weather Center, tracking Hurricane Ida's path. What is the forecast tonight, Tom?

TOM SATER, ATS METEOROLOGIST: Well, we're expecting 11 p.m. advisor, I wouldn't be surprised if they find that the system not only dropped in pressure, but the wind strong enough to make it a category three. We're expecting that and again a category four tomorrow. So that would make it a major hurricane.

You know, it's quite interesting. We're within 200 mile now to landfall and it still looks to be midday, central daylight time, around 1 p.m. But the last several years, it's been interesting what we watched. Last year was a record-breaking year as far as the number of storms which broke the previous record of the year before.

But we're also seeing in this changing climate on our warmer atmosphere and waters that these storms have been undergoing rapid intensification, most of them last year did. In fact, we haven't seen that number. It's been increasing year after year. But it's not only the ocean temperatures that are causing these to develop. It's the warmer air temperatures.

For every one degree Celsius we warm in the atmosphere you add 7% more humidity. So, you go back to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution days, we've added 11% more humidity. So, you just need a trigger mechanism to squeeze that out. Let's talk about the winds. About 5:00, 6:00 in the morning we'll be moving into around Grand Isle, and it makes its way northward reaching northern part of Louisiana later in the afternoon. But that's when the hurricane force winds. And we're expecting right now sustained at 130. Can you imagine the energy with this? If you look at the wind profile and, again, we have seen a little Eastern trend in the track, but we'll get a new one at 11 p.m. We're really looking at some of the worst eyewall winds from areas of New Orleans up toward Baton Rouge.

[22:05:12]

Now, the circulation you see here is not the eye, it's much lower. But if we can keep it away from Lake Charles, that's some good news too. It's still going to have a tremendous amount of wind strength, making its way up to the north Jackson, Mississippi as well. It takes quite some time for a category for to be downgraded.

The computer model differences, they've been spot on right now. We'll see if this changes in the next hour as well. Just a little bit slower with a European. So again, 1 p.m., local time landfall, maybe a little 2 o'clock, so give or take an hour.

Then, you talk tossing the storm surge. Here's the problem, when you have inundation that is well inland. Here's your warning. This is not just coastal surge. And it's not Katrina surge. But again, when it comes far inland, and heavy rain is trying to make its way out into the golf, it's got to kind of impede that process of draining.

And this is where the problem comes in for New Orleans. They are going to most likely not have a problem with the surge. Of course, everything has been eradicated and $20 billion into the system. But when you talk about New Orleans being in a bowl, and the heavy amounts of rain, they get 10, 15 inches of rain, their pumping system can only remove one inch in the first hour. And then several hours after that it's just a half inch.

So, if we get to three inches an hour, they're going to have some major problems and trying to make up for all that last time. But then you toss in the winds. And this is where it becomes a problem with catastrophic wind damage, again, sustained at 130. Those are not even the gust. So, the power outages, and many saying, you know catastrophic could be for weeks.

That doesn't even include the tornadoes that can spin up. It doesn't include the inundation and debris, the surge, the flooding, anybody who is still trying to ride the system out, I'm praying for you because it is going to be a long couple of days, you're going to be in darkness without power, you're going to be flooded and the road crews aren't going to be able to get there.

Here is the expectation, Poppy, power outages. And for the most part, I think it's under done. But I want to point out how far east this goes. And well up into areas of Mississippi, Alabama, even in Georgia.

HARLOW: Right. And some of those eastern parts of the state are what they're most worried about in terms of being, you know, potentially uninhabitable for a long time. Tom, thank you very much.

Let me bring in Cynthia Lee Sheng. She's the President of Jefferson Parish in Louisiana, the Parish it's just east of Houma. That's where you just saw Jason Carroll. And this is the area where Ida is expected to make landfall.

Thank you for staying up late and being with us tonight.

CYNTHIA LEE SHENG, PRESIDENT OF JEFFERSON PARISH, LOUISIANA: Thank you for having me.

HARLOW: Of course, look, you have towns in Jefferson Parish that are outside of the levee protection system or under mandatory evacuation orders and you've called on everyone who can leave warning that you're expecting a storm surge that is on survivable. That's a quote. What is your message to any of those who are listening tonight?

SHENG: Well, you know, that's where my concern is. In Jefferson Parish, we're a very unique Parish, and that we have dense living in urban areas. But a couple hours away from us is also part of our parish is our most vulnerable communities in Grand Isle. That road has been closed.

The people that are there are stuck there until after the storm, and that is certainly our concern. We were begging them to get out. But I know we have a couple dozen people down there. So that is truly our concern right now. Because that storm surge is going to be so strong for such a long period of time, that it will be unsurvivable. That's what we believe.

HARLOW: I mean, you are warning them, I hope they are heating these warnings before it gets too late. You have experts saying that customers in the direct path of the storm as intense and as powerful as what Hurricane Ida is looking to be, should expect to face power outages for three weeks and that customers in the hardest hit areas should plan for the possibility of extended power outages even past that. I mean, does there come a point especially in the immediate aftermath of the storm, that you're unable to go in and help those people?

SHENG: Well, that is certainly a concern. Look, our community is very vulnerable right now. We are very vulnerable with COVID. We are dealing with our fourth surge. So, we were coming in at kind of full hospital capacity already. And that's why it's just so heartbreaking on this anniversary of Katrina that we are dealing with this now. But we are prepared.

We pre-positioned a lot of assets ahead of time. The state has assets here. We have the Louisiana National Guard here to help with our firefighters, our police. We are ready to do search and rescue after this. But, of course, it is hot in August down here in Louisiana. And being without air condition for our vulnerable people is going to be very, very difficult. So, I think even after the storm, you're going to see people wanting to leave.

HARLOW: Of course, I mean, I didn't even think of, of course, the dangerously high temperatures and if they don't have power, what position that puts them in regarding air conditioning. We have this video. We can play for people in have crews working to close the floodgates in Jefferson Parish earlier today. What other steps have been taken to protect people, to protect property to do what they can obviously a lot has changed and improved infrastructure wise since Katrina?

[22:10:18]

SHENG: Yeah, we are really facing the storm in a different position than we were in 2005. We have a levee system. The levees have been fortified. They're higher. We have pump stations, that pump -- you know, we're in a bowl and all the water that falls in here has to get pumped out. And we rely on pumps. But now we have safe houses.

So, we have operators next to safe houses that are able to stay there during the storm. So, we can monitor that, right -- really right there. So, we're very, we're in a different place. But still, with this storm being, you know, slow and very strong. It's certainly something that we're very concerned about, but I'm here at the Emergency Operations Centre. You have agencies here, and we're prepared.

HARLOW: We're glad you're prepared. We hope everyone is safe. Thank you so much for taking the time with us this evening. And good luck to you, Cynthia Lee Sheng, we appreciate it.

We are also following significant breaking news tonight out of Kabul, Afghanistan. The U.S. Embassy issues -- has issued a security alert, a new one, just this evening, telling Americans to leave due to a specific credible threat at multiple locations. More on this next.

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[22:15:05]

HARLOW: Breaking tonight, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul issuing a new security alert, telling all Americans to leave the airport there immediately. This warning from the embassy says there's currently a specific and credible threat and this comes as President Biden today vows to carry out more retaliatory strikes after the ones that killed two ISIS-K targets, that drone strike was in response to the deadly attack that killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 others.

John Harwood is in Washington tonight at the White House. John, good evening. What more are we learning from the president. He was pretty clear and unequivocal, saying this is not the last strike.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, there's no doubt that President Biden was badly shaken by that attack on Thursday that took the lives of 13 U.S. troops and scores of innocent Afghans that's precisely what he did not want to happen, as he was trying to complete the extrication of the United States from this 20-year war.

And he was quite forthright today after a meeting with his commanders in the Situation Room issuing a statement saying that it is highly likely that we get hit another time at the Kabul airport sometime in the next 24 to 36 hours. And just this evening, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a statement asking Americans to, in the vicinity of Kabul airport, to leave because of a specific, credible threat.

Now the President also is trying to show determination to hit back at ISIS-K for that strike. You mentioned that the two ISIS-K planner facilitators at the Pentagon call them were taken out in that drone strike. In the president statement, he said this strike was not the last.

We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay. The situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous and the threat of terrorist attacks on the airport remains high. But all the while, Poppy, those evacuations continue at a narrowing pace for sure 2000 in the last 12 hours, well over 100,000 so far since August 14.

And just to put that in perspective, the United States estimated on August 14, there were 6000 Americans remaining in the country and President Biden said between 50 and 65,000 Afghan allies, the United States wanted to get out. They have now extricated and overseen the extrication, along with our coalition partners of a much larger number than that. It's not clear that all of those Afghan allies have gotten out.

In fact, an administration official told me that there will be a significant number of deserving people who don't get out. They're going to continue trying after the U.S. is gone. As for the Americans, the State Department has indicated today that there are just a few 100 Americans left who still want to get out some may have left the country, they're determined to get those Americans out by August 31 or very quickly afterwards, if that doesn't happen.

And, you know, we'll see what their ability is to get people out who want to get out after August 31.

HARLOW: John, just on that point, I mean, I -- you know, I heard Secretary of State Antony Blinken say this in the statement from him over the last few days, you know, the operation to get our allies out do not end on the 31st of August. But then how are they going to get them out? Are there any specifics about what the plan is?

HARWOOD: No, I think it is clear that to the extent that there in particular are Americans that's who Biden is placing the highest priority on Americans who are still left after August 31, who either have been trying to get out and been unable to or had hesitated and then decide they want to get out. It's clear that the United States if diplomatic efforts to get that done, don't work, that they're not ruling out some sort of special operations to extricate people.

HARLOW: Wow.

HARWOOD: That's clearly going to be difficult to accomplish. They also hope that the Kabul airport port with the help of a Turkish personnel is able to reopen commercial flights. Now, the Taliban says that they will not prevent people from leaving Kabul after August 31. You can't trust the word of the Taliban. We'll see whether they

deliver on that. But the U.S. has some financial leverage. They will have other allies who have the ability to try to put some pressure on. So, we'll see what happens after August 31 if in fact, this mission concludes that.

HARLOW: Right. John Harwood in Washington, thank you very much for the reporting tonight.

Let me bring in CNN Global Affairs Analyst in New York, Staff -- New Yorker Staff Writer, Susan Glasser.

Susan, thank you so much for being with me tonight.

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: I actually would like to begin on something you said this morning on this network that was so striking, you said, I'm very worried about the next couple of days and you have seen a lot and you report on all of it including the worse, you know, scenarios on the global stage. What are you most worried about tonight?

[22:20:06]

GLASSER: Well, I mean, look, you know, there's something like 72 hours left before the self-imposed deadline on August 31, for the remaining U.S. troops to leave. And, you know, that makes it in some ways, the most dangerous part of the evacuation, potentially, because anyone who wants to take a shot at the U.S. military, this is their last chance to do so.

You've seen these increasing calls of alarm, including from President Biden himself saying, you know, there's a heightened, heightened risk of an additional terrorist attack. And I just keep thinking back to last week, as I'm sure you do when we were aware, and the U.S. officials were saying day after day, you heard Jake Sullivan, the National Security Adviser saying there is this enormous risk of a suicide bombing attack of something from ISIS-K.

And yet in the end, that's exactly what happened. It was almost, you know, the chronicle of a massacre foretold. And so, you know, there's this sort of horrible sense of racing the clock to see how many people can get out. And, you know, can we accomplish this on the part of the U.S. military without any further loss of life? It's really just a very nerve-wracking period, I think.

HARLOW: When you have such public pronouncements of the risk to come, it's unique to say the least, I mean, to see what President Biden wrote on that Instagram post today, highly likely, there's another attack of the airport in the next 24 to 36 hours, then this very public statement just tonight, in the last hour or so from the U.S. Embassy. Can you help explain that to people why that wouldn't be publicized?

GLASSER: You know, it's very interesting. I agree. I've been really struck by their, you know, desire to do this, in part, I think they are responding to -- the Biden administration's responding to the fact that they were caught so flat footed by the abrupt collapse of the Afghan government and, you know, 11 days, essentially, from the Taliban offensive to the takeover of the country.

And so personally, I think they want to make it clear, we're not going to be caught flat footed again, there are risks, enormous risks, to life, and to, you know, everyone involved in this very hazardous evacuation. So, I think part of it is to make sure that they're being transparent and not being accused of withholding crucial information given the criticism at the beginning of the evacuation operation.

But I think it also again, communicating the risks, not wanting people to Stampede to the airport, especially if they're the kind of people who don't have documents or aren't likely to make it into the airport in the first place, the chaotic scenes around the airport and so many people thronging the entrances are part of the reason why, of course, it was so hard to distinguish between them and the suicide bomber in the end. And, of course, this tragic loss of something close to 200 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel already.

HARLOW: Susan, I'd like your response to this interview that my colleague Jim Sciutto, did yesterday that was so striking with an Afghan human rights activists. I'd like your response to what she said, really, in a message directly to President Biden, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PASHTANA DURRANI, AFGHAN HUMAN RIGHT ACTIVIST: When your president says we will not forget, and we will not forgive, it's exactly what he did. He forgave the Taliban. He forgot what he did. He's leaving and he -- there was no hunting down or anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Now, the administration's been clear, look, the next sort of phase of this is the over the horizon capabilities and strikes, like the drone strikes we saw against ISIS-K, but what do you make of her message, especially now that in some way the U.S. may have to coordinate with the Taliban in its fight against ISIS-K in Afghanistan?

GLASSER: Well, look, I will be paying very close attention to what is the messaging and what do we hear from Biden administration, after the U.S. military troops are withdrawn on August 31. And they're no longer directly minute by minute in coordination with the Taliban over the airport. And obviously, this is a very dangerous period of time.

So, I'll be curious whether their tone changes at all toward the Taliban after they withdraw. They -- I heard from a senior U.S. official yesterday, they have no plans in the foreseeable future, to recognize the Taliban as the new government of Afghanistan. We never did recognize them, the United States back when they were in control before 2001. So, I'll be just listening very closely to see if there's any change once U.S. troops are out of harm's way.

HARLOW: That's a very important point. Susan, thank you so much as always, it's good to have you tonight.

GLASSER: Thank you, Poppy.

[22:25:00]

HARLOW: Well, amid the absolute chaos, the fear, the danger as Afghans and Americans are escaping and evacuating, one evacuation flight was able to celebrate this. OK, this is something beautiful we want to bring you tonight, a beautiful bundle of joy the crew of a Turkish Airlines plane help deliver a baby girl this morning at an altitude of 30,000 feet.

This happened over Kuwaiti airspace. Her name is Havva, and she and her 26-year-old mother are both doing well. The family is headed to the United Kingdom. Havva is one of at least four infants born in the middle of these evacuations. Precious.

Well, still to come tonight, parishes up and down the Louisiana coast have called for mandatory evacuations and curfews ahead of landfall of Hurricane Ida. We'll speak with a council member from one of the parishes that is forecast to bear the brunt of the storm. That's next.

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HARLOW: One of the strongest storms going all the way back to the 1850s that is the warning tonight from Louisiana's Governor John Bel Edwards about Hurricane Ida that is fast approaching, expected to slam into the state tomorrow 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina made landfall there.

[22:30:01]

The National Hurricane Service is set to give an update. At the top of the hour as the storm gets stronger, President Biden is urging people in Ida's path to pay attention and to be prepared. Tom Sater joins us from the CNN Weather Center.

SATER: Yes, Poppy, do add on what the governor said, records go back to 1851. And if you look at Category 4 or higher for the state of Louisiana, you had one in the 1850s, one of the 1890s. That's before they were named. But then you had Betsy 1965, Camille, '69, and Laura. So again, this is a rare company here.

In fact, if you look just in the last year here, Laura, and Zeta were both major hurricanes. And now we've got a third one. This will be the fourth out of five hurricanes that have hit the U.S. to hit Louisiana.

Now, if anything is going to weaken the storm system, it's not going to be dry air, it fought that off earlier today. We don't have any wind shear to tear the system down. But it most likely will be called a process, it's called eyewall replacement cycle. The image is not very good here. It's starting to break up, it's wobbling, it's like taking a top and spinning on a table. They can only sustain the strength for so long before it starts to wobble.

The winds around the eye loosen up and weakened and spread out and it takes a while for them to get their act together. They tighten back up and the storm gets its strength back again. Typically, when that happens, the storm weakens. The process sometimes takes four or five hours, sometimes it can take 10 to 12. If that was going to happen, it's probably happening now. But we'll get to know more when we get the 11:00 p.m. update.

If you've got to have an eyewall replacement cycle, let's do it before landfall, therefore, it'll weekend before landfall. If it's going through the process now, you know all bets are off. And this could strengthen. So a lot of information coming out in the next half hour. But you can see the ridges in the high tops around this. So the system is still, you know, running on all cylinders. And most likely if it's not going through this process, it could be a Category 3 at 11:00 pm.

HARLOW: Wow. All right. We're very close to that half an hour away. We'll check in then Tom Sater, thanks very much. Let me bring in on the phone, City Councilman Daniel Lorraine from Louisiana's Lafourche Parish. Councilman, can you hear me? Good evening.

COUNCILMAN DANIEL LORRAINE, LOUISIANA LAFOURCHE PARISH: Yes ma'am. How you doing, Poppy.

HARLOW: I'm all right. We're grateful to you. We know you're right in the path of this storm right along where the hurricane is expected to directly hit a curfew now in place, mandatory evacuation orders for your parish with the last two shelters open, right, as a last resort.

LORRAINE: Yes. Yes, ma'am.

HARLOW: Does everyone have --

LORRAINE: Hurricane Ida is knock them on the door. We had a mandatory evacuation for the entire parish at 5:00 a.m. this morning. We have shelters at Central Lafourche High School and Thibodaux High School. At 6:00 p.m. they went into a curfew and we have in South Lafourche where we have, we have a levee system and we have flood gates and locks. And as of 6:00 p.m. tonight on the southern end of the Parish heading Port Fourchon the gates were closed. So there is nobody can go in and out. They should be shut down and we just -- it's just a waiting period.

And I'm sure in the morning we will probably start having some autobahns.

HARLOW: Did everyone get out?

LORRAINE: I could tell you that -- yes.

HARLOW: Did enough people leave?

LORRAINE: There's a lot of people that left but I wouldn't tell you that everybody left because like I said earlier, that, you know, to leave it takes money and not everybody has the funding for it, not everybody has, you know, the proper vehicles to take off. But I noticed myself I didn't need. My wife and my daughter and my two grandkids left and I'm with my son

in law up. We're about 30 miles north of Port Fourchon which is on the Gulf of Mexico and that's where things are heading towards Fourchon or Cooma (ph).

So, we're in the path, you know, and this first time I ever see. I could remember back in -- when I was 12 years old in 1965, Hurricane Betsy. So we'll see what happens and we'll just hope for the best.

HARLOW: Why did you stay?

LORRAINE: Well, you know, I got my son in law and then I got my other brother-in-law stayed and I stayed. And if they need me for some I'll be around, you know, we'll be all right. We're OK.

HARLOW: But are you sure? Well, sir, I mean, we all want what's best for you and everyone there but you guys, I mean the authorities are telling people to leave and you're staying. Do you think maybe it's time to go?

LORRAINE: No, no, I'm just going to ride it. This is basically almost too late to anybody to leave. If you don't leave (Inaudible) it's way too late. Because once the rain starts and the autobahns starts, it's over with. But we'll be all right. We have good levees who got a good levee system and, you know, we got boats and, you know, I'm not --

HARLOW: What -- OK.

LORRAINE: We just can't leave.

[22:35:03]

HARLOW: I hope your -- I hope every -- you are all right. I wonder if you have advice for anyone else who may who may be staying.

LORRAINE: Oh, I'm sure, listen, the people that are in this area, you know, we are classified as occasions. We're about 75 miles north, north -- southwest of New Orleans. So we were born and raised in the marsh and all and, you know, which -- this is one of those things, but you know, we just got to put all this in God's hands and hope for the best.

HARLOW: We all hope for the best for you. We wish you all the protection necessary, sir. Good luck and stay safe.

LORRAINE: Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate it.

HARLOW: Of course. Also to Afghanistan, the Pentagon says two high profile ISIS-K targets were killed in a U.S. drone strike overnight, and the President is vowing more strikes. How do they plan to do that, especially with the U.S. military just days away from finishing its withdrawal from Afghanistan? We'll talk about what this new over the horizon approach really means.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:39:57]

HARLOW: Our breaking news tonight out of Afghanistan.

[22:40:00]

The US Embassy in Kabul has just issued a security alert for the Kabul airport. This is due in their words to a specific credible threat at multiple areas. And this new warning comes just hours after President Biden said the Afghanistan mission faces a quote, high likelihood of another terror attack in the next 24 to 36 hours.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: So rents are still very real. They're very dynamic. And we are monitoring them literally in real time. And as I said, yesterday, we're taking all the means necessary to make sure we remain focused on that threat stream and doing what we can for force protection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Let me bring in CNN military analysts and retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. He's a former CIA counterterrorism official who oversaw critical Special Operations missions when he was deployed in the Middle East. One of the best people we could talk to given your experience. So thank you tonight for being with us. Let's talk about exactly that.

How do you get these remaining Americans out, as many Afghan allies out as possible, when 13 U.S. servicemembers have just been murdered and a terror attack at the airport? And now the president says another one is likely in the next 24 to 36 hours and the embassy tonight is telling every American to leave, how do you do this?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Hello, Poppy. It's complicated. And it's one of the toughest things because it's one thing if you are protecting a VIP, making sure that the VIP is not attacked by a terror group or by, you know, lone assailant or something like that.

It's quite another when you're dealing with tens of thousands of people. And that's what we're looking at, especially when you're talking about the Afghan nationals who have worked with and protected the U.S. serving both as the translators as well as, you know, an assistant capacity during the 20 years that we were involved in Afghanistan directly.

So it becomes very complicated from a planning standpoint. Basically what you have to do is you have to make sure that you gather people up in certain areas, and that those areas where you gather them up aren't known to the Taliban or to anybody else. And that's an almost impossible task, when you've got so many people that you have to gather up, and so many areas that you could potentially be active in. So it's a very tough counterterrorism problem --

HARLOW: Yes. LEIGHTON: It's a very tough area environment for us to be working at.

HARLOW: So the situation that the United States is in right now on the ground in Afghanistan for the remaining 72 hours or so, is not only one of, you know, defensive and skeptical to say the least position against the Taliban, right, which can't be trusted, and fighting against now ISIS-K from the sky in this over the horizon capability that we have now switched to there.

I mean, can you explain to people how one navigates that given your counterterrorism experience on the ground in the Middle East? Is there a scenario where you see the U.S. working with the Taliban against ISIS-K?

LEIGHTON: Well, you know, as the old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

HARLOW: Right.

LEIGHTON: And in this case, they're not really friends. But they can work together for common interests. And it is possible, as bizarre as it sounds, that, you know, on occasion, we might actually work with the Taliban, if ISIS-K remains an enemy of the Talibans. So that's another key if.

You know, if ISIS course on all of a sudden becomes friends with the Taliban, and all bets are off. And, you know, all these things are likely there's a lot of temporary alliances in there -- that happened in the Middle East or in Afghanistan. And that's one of the key difficulties, you know, you've got capabilities that really depend on people being on the ground. And then you have other capabilities that over the horizon (ph) piece that you mentioned, that you can work from remote locations, and they can work from overhead, either satellites or drones or even aircraft.

But those are the kinds of things that have to be put together in a very complex architecture in order to get a fairly clear intelligence picture of what's happening on the ground. It requires a lot of work to do that.

HARLOW: The Biden ministration has said, you know, repeatedly, we're done. We're out on the 31st of August. So that's Tuesday. But they are also saying there will be other efforts to get any Americans who may remain there who want to get out and are Afghan allies. Can you explain or do you have a clear understanding of what the plan is for that? How do you extricate them when our troops are gone?

LEIGHTON: That becomes really difficult. And the answer is you really can't do it with them being gone completely from the scenes. So, what they're going to do is they're going to have to insert troops or, you know, could even be a third nation troops coming in to help with the evacuation of repatriation of American citizens or of Afghans who work for us.

[22:45:11] And that's going to be a very complex issue involving a lot of diplomacy as well as potential for force on force type situations. And a force on force type situation is the equivalent to a shooting incident.

HARLOW: Right.

LEIGHTON: And that's something we have to be very careful. Because if you do get it involved in that development risks getting out of hand and that can be a real big problem.

HARLOW: Of course, Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you so much for your expertise tonight.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Poppy, anytime.

HARLOW: Tonight, the families of 13 Americans serving in Afghanistan are suffering deeply. They are mourning the loss of their loved ones killed in the Kabul airport attack. They were sons. They were daughters. They were brothers and sisters. And they were all so young. All of them putting their lives on the line to save the lives of others leaving behind a legacy of selflessness.

Tonight, we learned their names and we remember who they were in and out of uniform.

Marine Lance Corporal Riley McCollum was just 20 years old. He was from Jackson, Wyoming. He was going to become a dad for the first time in a matter of weeks. Riley sister tells us he wanted to be a marine his whole life so much so that he even as a toddler in diapers carried around a toy rifle, and cowboy boots.

His father tells the New York Times Riley was a beautiful soul tough as nails with the heart of gold, someone who could not stand injustice, someone who would stand up for those bullied in his class.

Corporal Daegan Page wanted to be a lineman, once his marine enlistment was over. His family says the 23-year-old was also an animal lover with a soft spot in his heart for dogs.

Navy Hospitalman Maxton Soviak was just 22. According to his parents when Maxton was telling them goodbye, his mom Rachel told him to be safe and he said don't worry, mom, my guys got me. They won't let anything happen to me. Maxton is survived by his parents and 12 brothers and sisters.

22-year-old Marine Corporal Hunter Lopez grew up in Southern California. Both of his parents worked for the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. Lopez reportedly planned on following in his parents footsteps and becoming a Riverside County Sheriff's deputy after he got home.

Marine Corps Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz was just 20 years old. His father says his whole world was the Marine Corps. Jared's dad also says he was particularly close to his nine-year-old special needs sister who quote, worshipped the ground that Jared walked on. Marine Corps Sergeant Nicole Gee was a 23-year-old. She was from Sacramento, California. And just six days before the deadly attack, the attack that took her life, the defense department posted this photo on social media that was taken from her Instagram account. Look at that. There she is holding a little baby. And the caption from her, I love my job.

31-year-old Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Darin Hoover of Salt Lake City, Utah. He actually went by his middle name Taylor. Just tonight, his father told CNN he remembers his son as quote the best son that two parents could ever ask for describing him as someone who always stepped up to defend the little guy. His sister Tory says, I'd give anything to speak with him one more time.

These are the other service members who lost their lives and as we wait to learn more about them and we will share more about them with you as soon as we know more. We want to recognize their sacrifice.

25-year-old Marine Corps Sergeant Johanny Rosariopichardo of Lawrence, Massachusetts, 20-year-old Marine Corps Lance Corporal David Espinoza of Rio Bravo, Texas, 20-year-old Marine Corps Lance Corporal Dylan Merola of Rancho Cucamonga, California, 20-year-old Marine Corps Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui Norco, California, 23-year-old Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Knauus of Korean, Tennessee, and finally 22-year-old Marine Corps Corporal Humberto Sanchez of Logansport, Indiana. They were all so young.

We remember them, we honor them and we grieve with their families tonight.

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[22:53:37]

HARLOW: Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for parts of at least seven parishes across Louisiana tonight. This is powerful Hurricane Ida makes its way toward the Gulf coastline there. Many people are heeding the warning. They're getting out. Look at all that traffic as people try to evacuate. This is video from earlier today along Interstate 10. That's near Baton Rouge, a long line of cars as people try to get out of the path of this storm.

Our Ed Lavandera joins me on the phone. Ed, look, you're seeing this firsthand. Do you get the sense having covered a lot of these storms that more people this time are heeding the warnings to evacuate?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You really are, Poppy. We just pulling into Baton Rouge coming along Interstate 10. And that long line of cars continues tonight even approaching here the 10:00 hour. And it's clear that that long line of evacuation cars trying to get out before the arrival of this hurricane.

A long line of cars that we saw backed up from basically Lafayette to Baton Rouge this evening headed west out of the storm's path. And we understand that on the other side of the storm as well. Some people heading east because as we all know this storm projected to basically pass directly north into east and people who were hitting these evacuation orders today, moving east and west along the interstate.

[22:55:07]

And we anticipate that we're going to see this long line of traffic well into the night, as state officials here have been warning that by the time the sun comes up tomorrow, people really need to have decided whether or not they're going to ride out the storm in their homes in southern Louisiana, higher Ground elsewhere, and drier ground elsewhere. So here at this late hour on this Saturday evening, you see thousands of people hitting the roads, trying to get to a safer place, Poppy.

HARLOW: Let's hope they are. It's good to see so many people trying to get out. Ed, thank you for the reporting. Good luck and wishing you and your team safety on the ground as you cover this for us.

We're also waiting on an update that's about to come any minute the latest track for Hurricane Ida. We'll bring that to right at the top of the hour. Stay right here.

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HARLOW: It's the top of the hour so glad you're with us this Saturday evening. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. And Hurricane Ida is right now gaining strength and barreling toward the Louisiana coastline. It is set to hit Louisiana is an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane tomorrow on the 16th anniversary to the day that Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

The state's governor is warning that time to prepare is running out and that Ida could be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the state in more than a century.