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Hurricane Ida Pummels Louisiana as Cat 4 Storm; 2,400 FEMA Personnel Deployed to Assist with Hurricane Ida Impact; New Orleans Braces Up to 20 Inches of Rain from Hurricane Ida. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 29, 2021 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NEWSROOM: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We are following breaking news this hour. Hurricane Ida is far from over as it pummels Louisiana as a category 4 storm right now.

We're talking about winds of 130 miles an hour, life-threatening storm surge and torrential rain all slamming Louisiana 16 years to the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall. More than 400,000 customers are without power right now. That number expected to keep going up as Ida makes its way inland.

Ida is now tied with Hurricane Laura as the strongest storm on record ever to hit Louisiana, the storm's strength proving no match for the Mississippi River, partially reversing its flow this afternoon.

We are tracking Ida from every angle with our team or reporters, but let's begin with Jason Carroll who is in Houma, Louisiana. He just beginning hammered all day long. This is one of the hardest hit areas so far. Jason, what can you tell us?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, we have shifted position again to an area that's even closer to this brick building, because the conditions have deteriorated to a point where we just need to be more mindful, even more mindful of our safety.

I just want to show you, that's where I was standing during the last live report that we did with you just a few moments ago. You can see another tree as come down over there. And when looking from that vantage point, you get a real sense of just how strong the wind is. I could stand, what, ten minutes ago. Ten minutes later, no longer. I've got to stand where I'm standing right now.

If you look right out here, you can get another vantage point for what we're experiencing right now in Houma as the eye passes to the east and these churning winds surrounding that eye are barreling down on Houma. It's nothing -- I've never seen anything like this, Jim. It's incredible.

In terms of the destructive power, that is something we're going to have to see later on once all of this clears. What we can tell you at this point is emergency officials tell us that they have already received reports of damage to structures, clearly, uprooted trees, that were the trees are all around us, downed to power lines, power is out in the area. It's going to take a while for emergency crews to be able to get out there and assess what all these damage and this storm has done.

We're still looking at probably another two hours or so of all of this before things get to a point where we can venture out and see more of what's going on. But, again, just to let you know how bad conditions have deteriorated, ten minutes ago, I was standing right over there, as you can see where that downed tree was. Ten minutes later, I've got to stand over here. And this is what's happening right now in Houma. Jim?

ACOSTA: Jason, we're so glad you're staying safe as possible covering all of this. I'm just curious what you think of, because you've covered so many of these storms, what you think about the fact that this -- the storm has just stayed on top of you all day long. I mean, it's been going on for five or six hours now. Is that letting up?

CARROLL: Well, you know, Jim, yes, you've covered these storms as well. And, you know, Meteorologists will be able to weigh in on this. It's so hard to predict. Sometimes you think the storm is moving quickly, it does moving quickly, and then it stalls and churns it's itself over a particular area. Unfortunately, that happens to be it seems like where we are now.

I am paying attention to you, the reason why I keep looking over my shoulder is because you know once you've been out here, you always have to keep a mindful eye on what's happening. And look at that as now, the wind just roars through here. I'm going to take a moment just so you can listen to it.

Again, absolutely incredible as you can see the wind roaring through here.

There's a hotel through there. We can't even see it anymore. It's hard to see very much what's happening in front of us, which is why, for safety reasons, we're keeping our distance back here. But that wind that you see here is howling and churning all throughout Houma and the surrounding area. Jim?

ACOSTA: Yes, Jason, and it looks like you're in the middle of a tornado right now. It's just extraordinary to watch the winds whipping around where you're at. Jason, we'll let you take cover, get safe and we'll talk to you again soon.

[18:05:03]

Thanks so much for that report and for hanging in there all afternoon for us. We appreciate it.

Joining us now is Deanne Criswell. She is the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. Deanne, we saw the president with you there earlier this afternoon. I know you've been updating him on the latest as to how Hurricane Ida is just vicious in the way it's pummeling Louisiana right now. Give us a breakdown of what teams will be doing in the coming days. And I know you have so much experience in this area. What are your thoughts on the characteristics of this storm as it is just pummeling Louisiana right now?

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Thank you, Jim. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to talk about what we're doing. Now, this is -- I mean, it's a catastrophic event. It made landfall as a category 4. I believe it still has category 4 winds. But it's not just the winds we're going to see and the coastal areas. This is going to have life widespread impacts across the region, life-threatening flooding from the intense rainfall that we're going to see, the storm surge as well as the winds.

So what I worry about most is it's not just a coastal event. This is going to impact people that are in this path of this storm throughout Louisiana and Mississippi. And even as the rain goes east, people need to be aware of what's going on, aware of where their risk in comparison to this storm.

ACOSTA: And is this storm exceeding expectations in terms of how devastating it's been so far? Do you have a sense as to how bad things are yet, or any early reports from out of the field or is it just too early?

CRISWELL: You know, we're starting to see some of the impacts, right? We're starting to see the power outages and getting report of the damaged structures as well as downed trees, but it is too early. We have got several hours more that this storm is going to continue to just hammer this part of the country. We'll know more in the morning as to the impacts are going to be. And then we are embedded, right, with the state of Louisiana, as well as Mississippi, prepared to support their needs as they start search and rescue efforts that we know will probably be needed tomorrow.

ACOSTA: And the National Weather Service has warned that parts of Louisiana could be uninhabitable for weeks, if not, months. What is the plan for FEMA to help those people in need? And are you equipped to be able to carry out a mission that long at this point?

CRISWELL: You know, we know that there is going to be significant damage to the homes across that area. There're currently shelters in place and we are prepared to support some of the immediate housing needs for individuals in hotels immediately after the storm passes. And then we'll work closely with the state of Louisiana and what those long-term housing needs are going to be.

But this is going to take a long time. The recovery from this is not going to be quick. It is going to take a significant amount of effort across federal state and local levels to make sure that we're getting the community back up on its feet.

ACOSTA: And you helped in the response effort after Katrina. That was obviously a devastating storm. I covered that myself. But when it comes to Ida, have you ever seen anything like this in terms of the devastation that we're seeing? I mean, this is shaping up to be a very significant weather event.

CRISWELL: You know, we're going to see the two major urban areas in Louisiana. Both New Orleans and Baton Rouge have major impacts from this storm and it's going to continue with the communities along the way. I think the predictions that we have been talking about over the last couple of days are coming true and I think that they may exceed some of the predictions that we had as this storm has now kind of slowed down and it's just going to continuing to provide that rainfall, that intense rainfall as it moves slowly to the east.

ACOSTA: Yes. It's the slowing to the hurricane that has caught our attention all day long. We've been watching our Jason Carroll, they're been there and others in Houma, in the way that these winds, those significant winds -- and I'm sure you're seeing it where you are as well -- they just don't seem to be letting up.

CRISWELL: It's still -- again, I think it made landfall as a category 4 hours ago and we're still seeing category 4 winds with gusts up into the category 5 area and that rainfall is just now really starting to impact the area. I mean, this is the path that the storm that I think the worst case scenario for the path that this storm could take. But we're going to be ready. We're going to be -- we're there, we're embedded, we've got resources prepositioned. We know that there will be some short fall immediately and will just continue to bring in the resources that are needed to support the people of Louisiana.

ACOSTA: All right, Administrator Criswell, thanks so much for joining us and giving us the latest on this. We'll let you get back to work, but thanks so much for your time.

Tom Sater is tracking Hurricane Ida for us at the CNN Weather Center. Tom, I'm so glad that we're talking to you right now. I know you've covered so many of these hurricanes, these devastating hurricanes over the years. This is shaping up to be a very significant hurricane because of the fact that the winds have not let up to a significant degree and just the duration of what we're seeing, right?

[18:10:05]

It's just -- it's unbelievable.

TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's mind blowing, Jim. It's mind blowing. This is going to be, no doubt, in the record books. The last one like this, Laura, which, by the way, records go back to 1851, Louisiana is now the only state to have consecutive years where hurricanes with winds of 150 miles per hour or greater have made landfall. And that was a $17.5 billion disaster. Can you imagine what is going to be?

Now, two main factors last night we were concerned about. It's a more compact storm. The wind field with Katrina was four or five times greater and had much more water underneath because Katrina at one point was a category 5. But these smaller compact storms hit like cannonballs. And so the force moving in, and we're seeing it continue northward was a big concern, but as you mentioned, the slowing of the speed, which is also forecast. You can see where landfall 150 miles per hour, and, again, at 11:55, first hurricane for the year, this now makes the fourth out of five hurricanes, the last five we've seen, to hit the state of Louisiana.

But this is what's -- I have never seen something quite like this until, you know, we study some of these and, of course, we have them on CNN International. We've been covering these typhoons that move in areas like China. This is match like some of the massive typhoons. But I haven't seen this here where you just well defined core does not change. The colors in an infrared satellite imagery would definitely start to lighten their colors, but notice the darker bands. It is still breathing.

But what is giving it the energy? It's called the brown ocean effect. This system is no longer feeding on the warm waters of the gulf. It's feeding on the marsh waters, its feeding on its own rainfall. We saw this with Harvey a couple of years ago when it moves in Texas. This was a moment two and three miles per hour. And it rained, of course, as we know, 30, 40, 50 inches. It was feeding on its own water. So it's called the brown ocean effect.

But with that said, this is going to go much further inland. So they've already started to extend northward, some of the extreme winds and we've got those extreme winds warnings. But, again, if you haven't seen this today, of course, our landfall 153 miles per hour wind gusts. The sheriff in town recorded 148 before this instrument broke.

So, again, that we're going to get unbelievable pictures tomorrow. Once the winds lighten up, and you have to wait until tomorrow because the winds are still strong. The aerial views we'll see from small aircraft or maybe drones is going to stagger the imagination. Remember what it looked like when Michael moved into Mexico Beach, homes off their foundations. Remember when Harvey, as a cat 4, moved into Rockport in Texas. They weren't expecting that rapid development. Most of these are doing these days, it's climate change. But now, we've got the extreme wind warning.

It has -- of course, they've taken away some areas to the south and southwest and they've added it to the north. And now it does include western areas in the suburbs of New Orleans. So, again, there saying, well winds expecting on to be 150 miles per hour. And I've heard broadcast throughout the day act like it's a tornado warning, sure. But in tornado warnings, you go to the lower part of your basement. Some places you can't do that because the waters are now inundating some of the homes there. So, this is a really tricky situation.

But I want to break down one more point. You can see how it continues to flow. Yesterday, we talked about is there anything possible that could weaken the storm. It wasn't going to be dry air. It battled that off yesterday morning. It wasn't going to be any wind shear because the environment was rife for further development, the warmer waters.

The only thing that could possibly slow this system down or deteriorate it at all, if it goes through a natural process called an eye wall replacement cycle, most intense hurricanes do this, they can only sustain that intensity for so long and the eye starts to wobble. When the eye wobbles, the strongest winds around the core expands outward somewhat and they circulate out wider and weaken somewhat. Pressure may arise a little bit and takes maybe five to seven hours, sometimes 11 to 12. But then those eye walls start to get stronger and they confine and collapse interior and it gains speed again. So during that process it could weaken.

We had that, we think, just before landfall. Post-analysis of all the data will tell us or not. It could have kept it from reaching category 5 status. But what it did is not always good news here. Because the inner eye wall extended out wards, it just took those strong winds and created a larger profile for more damage, maybe a good seven to ten miles to the east and west, all the way around that center. So, now, your destruction zone with stronger winds that are going to be much wider. So that's what we're contending with, not to mention the slow speed that's going to drop crazy amounts of rainfall.

We're also now hearing possibly an overflow in eleven (ph) areas the western part of Plaquemines Parish that are still into this feeder bands. So we've got a long night ahead of us and a long day tomorrow. In fact, we're going to continue to monitor this obviously. And get all the reports in the ground. But we're not going to see it pick up until we get into later parts of tomorrow.

ACOSTA: All right, and that cannot come soon enough. All right, Tom Sater, thanks so much.

Our special hurricane coverage continues right after this. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM as we take into a break.

[18:15:00]

Some pictures of people trying to get out into the storm. Please don't do this. This is a dangerous storm, as we've been telling you all afternoon. We will be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: And some breaking news for you right now, the rainfall and storm surge from Hurricane Ida is causing a levee to overtop on the east bank of Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana. Flash flood emergency is in effect for the area and residents are urge to seek higher grounds, again, that information just coming to CNN in the last several minutes. That levee is being overtopped there in Plaquemine's Parish. We're going to get on top of that and give you the latest development on that.

In the meantime, I'm joined now by Vice Admiral Steven Poulin. He is the Atlantic area commander for the U.S. Coast Guard. Admiral Poulin, we talked to you yesterday about Hurricane Ida before it was coming ashore. This appears to be a -- I mean, the forecasters were pretty accurate. I think they were right on the money in terms of warning the public about how devastating this storm could be.

[18:20:05]

But I'm just wondering what your thoughts are as we see this hurricane just hammering Louisiana right now. It does seem to be potentially more significant than even those dire forecasts we were hearing.

VICE ADMIRAL STEVEN POULIN, ATLANTIC AREA COMMANDER, U.S. COAST GUARD: Thank you for having me on again. Yes, this is a devastating hurricane. It's going to have catastrophic impact. It's already had catastrophic impact. We're always hopeful for the best, but we do prepare for the worst. So we're going to stand ready to respond as soon as the weather allows us, but our hearts are with the people of Southern Louisiana and Mississippi. This is a devastating storm. But we're going to stand ready to respond as soon as possible.

ACOSTA: And when do you think it will be safe for your teams to go out to do rescue operations, because one of the issues is how long this is taking for Hurricane Ida to make its way out of Louisiana. It seems to be taking a little longer than what we anticipated.

POULIN: Yes, absolutely. The fact that the storm has slowed and is not moving as quickly that we originally anticipated is creating some complications. We will launch our aircraft as soon as possible. In fact, we already have one airplane up that's surveying the offshore area to try to get a better handle on what the impacts were to the offshore industry. But in terms of responding to the impacted area in South Louisiana, it's going to take some time for that storm to pass to allow the winds and the rains and the thunder storm to abate to a point where we can safely respond.

ACOSTA: And having been in these kinds of rescue operations so many times over the years and leading these kinds of missions, what should residents and our viewers at home, what should we be anticipating tomorrow and the hours ahead as this storm clears? What will you be seeing in terms of rescue operations, people being stranded, that sort of thing? What are you looking to see in the coming days here?

POULIN: Well, we're not going to know until we actually get aircraft up into the impact zone and fly our storm surveys and we can assess the damage. We're going to launch aircraft as soon as we can and those aircraft are going to be there to provide life-saving response.

We're ready to respond however is required, whether it's pulling people off the top of roofs, pulling people over flooded areas, pulling mariners in distress from the water. Our helicopter crews are well trained and ready to save lives.

ACOSTA: And are there some areas of Louisiana as you're watching this unfolded, there some areas that you're most concerned about right now?

POULIN: I'm concerned about all of it, frankly. I'm concerned about the storm surge in South Louisiana. I'm very concerned about New Orleans and Baton Rouge and those urban areas. You know, we positioned aircraft on both sides of the storm in Houston and here on Mobile to give us the flexibility to respond irrespective of what the storm track was.

We've also moved shallow water response units into Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. We have got 33 teams at the ready to provide emergency response to complement urban search and rescue capability that state and local communities have. ACOSTA: Because I suppose you're keeping an eye on those outer bands, I mean, everybody is focused on the intensity of that eye. And it's just unbelievable how it's been able to hold together and maintain intensity over time. But those outer bands may deliver some very serious blows to communities we did not anticipate and you'll have to deal with that as well I supposed.

POULIN: Yes, absolutely. We're going to fly when it's safe. Our crews will take a lot of risks. They're heroes, but we're going to fly when it's safe to do so, when a lot time that's about navigating around thunder storms, clouds cover, winds. You know, we want to make sure that we protect the life-savers so that we can further save lives.

ACOSTA: Absolutely, and they do heroic work. Vice Admiral Poulin, thank so much for your time. Good to talk to you again, so we appreciate it.

POULIN: Okay. Thank you.

ACOSTA: Thank you, sir. And for information on how you can help people affected by Hurricane Ida, and people are going to need your help, please log onto cnn.com/impact. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:25:00]

ACOSTA: The center of Hurricane Ida is passing just east of Houma, currently about 40 miles southwest of New Orleans and winds are continuing to pick up in New Orleans. That's where CNN's Brian Todd is right now.

Brian, how are things shaping up there? It looks like it's getting worse as we anticipated where you are.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is getting worse, Jim. And I can tell you as we look down in the French Quarter here, this is Dauphine Street and St. Louise Street here in New Orleans. Look at the flooding that's starting to occur here on Dauphine Street. When you look down there, our photojournalist is taking a shot down there. We just saw some debris flying off of a roof over that way. There's debris all over the place. You've got to keep your eyes and ears peeled because things are just flying around here.

Down at St. Louis Street, not that flooding, not as quite as bad down there, but I just talked to a city emergency management official, a short time ago. She told me that what they're worried about right now is how slowly this storm is moving and the fact that we have not seen the worst of it here in New Orleans just yet.

[18:30:00]

My team and I, a short time ago, tried to move about four or five blocks that way toward the Mississippi River to get right on the river to show you -- to illustrate how the river flow has reversed because the storm surge is so strong. We could not transmit from there. It was too dangerous. The wind was just crushing us. We couldn't get -- you know, the signal would have just probably not worked, so we had to fade inland a little bit down into the French Quarter here a little bit.

And now you see the effects of some of the storm surge. And we're going to show you some of the flooding. This is not storm surge flooding. This is pure volume of rainfall flooding here on the Dauphine Street. The first indications that we're getting that the French quarter may experience some flooding. And this is high ground in New Orleans. We were told that there was some flooding in the northern part of the city by the Lakefront Airport there.

We're going to hope to check that out later, but again it's getting more and more dangerous to move around here in New Orleans. And, you know, we're talking to city officials constantly about that. So that's one aspect of what's going on here in New Orleans as they get really some of the brunt of the storm hitting the city in earnest. Again, you know, it's setting records for rainfall now.

This is going to be a rainfall flooding event here in New Orleans. Again, we talked to officials from the flooding emergency management authority here. They are very confident that the floodgates, the storm gates, and the levees are going to hold, that the storm surge will not breach those because they have been so heavily fortified since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It's basically more than 30 feet tall, 1.8 miles long. It's basically a wall of concrete and steel around the greater New Orleans area, again where the river would present the storm surge danger.

But you can see, I mean, just look down this street. Jake, if you can pan down here. The visibility is getting worse and worse as we go here. Jim, you can barely see down that street. The wind -- you know, if you go from one street to another where it's not protected, I step out here, and I'll get pelted with some wind, and again we move that way toward the Mississippi River and we could not transmit from there.

We had to fade back in here where there's a little bit more protection in town. So, Jim, that's what it looks like right now. Again, New Orleans not seeing the worst of this yet and we're already seeing some flooding down here in the French Quarter.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: All right, Brian Todd, and the French Quarter, it's a great part of the country, but they're definitely going to be dealing with some major impacts from Hurricane Ida in the hours ahead. And we know you'll stay on top of it. We'll get back to you just as soon as we can. Thanks so much, Brian.

The rainfall and the storm surge from Hurricane Ida is causing a levee to overtop on the east bank of Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana. We're telling you about this just a few minutes ago. A flash flood emergency is in effect for the area and residents are urged to seek higher ground. So if you're in this area of Plaquemines Parish, if you're near this levee is being overtopped right now, you want to seek higher ground. All of this happening of course on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall on the Gulf Coast, in fact, in 2005. I'm joined now by someone who was on the front lines for the statewide

response and recovery effort after Katrina, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. He's on the phone with us right now.

Mayor, thank you so much for being with us. Great talking to you again as always. What do you make of how Hurricane Ida is progressing? This appears to be a very significant event that is still really not hitting New Orleans just yet. I mean, there are hours to go potentially before New Orleans is really in the grips of this.

MITCH LANDRIEU (D), FORMER NEW ORLEANS MAYOR: No question. It's not lost on anybody that today is the 16th anniversary of Katrina. So those of us that went through that are remembering that day. Ida is a very different storm but it's proving to be every bit as dangerous as people have expected. They've clocked winds at 130 miles per hour in the lower-level parishes, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, down in Grand Isle, Delacroix, Shell Beach.

I just talked to the president of St Bernard, have said that everything outside of the levee system is inundated with floodwaters. Four to six feet above where the roads are supposed to be. Once you get inside the levee system, though, it's looks a little bit different except that the winds are very, very heavy, they're very intense. And unfortunately this storm is slowing down, which is a real problem because when the storm -- you know, if the storm was going 25 or 30 miles an hour, it'd be one thing.

But if it's moving at a pace of 11 to 12 miles an hour, and those sustained winds, and those sustained rains stay over you, they can just do persistent damage. And we're seeing that unfortunately especially in Lafourche and Terrebonne, in the Houma area. Now the storm is moving up and just coming over towards New Orleans, and there's been -- of course Brian, I'm about two miles from where he is in downtown New Orleans -- in uptown New Orleans. I see extensive wind. A lot of rain.

You can see now projectiles starting to fly, which is why it's really dangerous right now. And the bigger point that Ken Grand (PH) made here, who by the way is the gold standard in the country, is that we're just in the beginning of this right now.

ACOSTA: Right.

[18:35:06]

LANDRIEU: And we're expecting that all of that's happening right now is going to last a fairly significant amount of time. You know, and people have been inside. I know it's painful but you've got to stay inside, stay hunkered down, because first responders are standing, they can't get out in the wind and the rain. If people go outside, it's going to put them in harm's way. So I know the governor and the mayors and the parish presidents, all the first responders are working really hard to make sure that they can get out, get everybody safe as soon as it's safe for them to do so. But our expectation is if this thing is going to continue to get more difficult as the night goes on, as all of the experts have told us. ACOSTA: And let me ask you about the significance of that levee being

overtopped in Plaquemines Parish. How worrisome is that to you? And we just saw Brian Todd showing us a flooded street there in the French Quarter. How worrisome is that. Put that in perspective for us, if you can.

LANDRIEU: Well, a couple of things. I don't know that that particular levee that he's talking about, whether it's inside the levee system or outside of the new levee system. In the lower lying parishes that are outside of the levee system, that is expected. It's very unfortunate but the rain and the overtopping is very consistent. If it's inside of the new levee system, everybody that's looked at it feels that because of the trajectory of the storm we feel really good that those new levees that were constructed 16 years ago are going to hold.

So I feel good about that. The other problem, though, is that that doesn't answer the question, is it ever going to flood. If you have really aggressive vertical rainfall like Texas had in Harvey, lots of rainfall in short periods of time that extend, you can absolutely have flooding in the city of New Orleans, even in the high ground. Now I don't see much flooding where I am right now and the other reports from the local radio stations say that we don't see that yet. But again, we're at the very beginning of this.

And so there are lots of things, the big (INAUDIBLE), there are lots of thing that could still really hurt you even when the wind calms down and the rain calms down. So just, you know, I know that the local officials are saying just to stay inside, stay safe, be with your loved ones, do the best you can. There are 500,000 homes that are without electricity right now which of course causes its own difficulties especially for senior citizens and those that are, you know, on apparatus that they need for their health.

So we're in a very serious situation here. People have to be patient. They have to be safe. We're going to get through this. And I know that there a lot of people waiting to come in and help as much as they can as soon as safety allows them to do so.

ACOSTA: And how surprising should it be to our viewers to hear local officials in New Orleans, Louisiana, tell people, listen, if you've decided to ride out this storm, you may have to hunker down and fend for yourself for 72 hours before any potential help could arrive? Does that jive with how you would have conducted things when you were mayor of New Orleans?

LANDRIEU: Absolutely.

ACOSTA: Yes.

LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, listen, the story all the time is to get a plan and to make sure that you can be self-sufficient from 48 to 72, you know, even longer hours. In these particular instances when electricity goes out whether it's in New Orleans or better yet whether it's in the northeast, after Sandy, you have to be prepared to be able to sustain yourself because the first responders cannot get to you in those early hours. So that is consistent with just kind of the way this kind of things are conducted.

I've listened to all of the elected officials talk. They've done an excellent job. The mayors, the presidents. And at the end of the day, though, it requires citizens to really, really, really help each other out. At the end of the day there are not enough first responders to save people that don't want to help themselves. And the more people go out into these elements it put first responders at risk, it gets more difficult for everybody else.

But, listen, the one great thing about the people of Louisiana, we have been through this many times. We are battle tested. We know what to do. We love each other. We're going to care for each other and even in the most difficult circumstances which unfortunately is happening to our sisters and brothers in the lower-level parishes right now, they're having their toughest to this. But we're not out of the woods yet.

ACOSTA: Yes.

LANDRIEU: And I think New Orleans is still at risk. And then this thing is going to move up into the north shore, probably up into the Baton Rouge-Donaldsonville area as well. You want the winds to slow down but if it does, if these winds are persistent and that second eye wall, you know, can really, really hurt you. So it just stays --

ACOSTA: Yes.

LANDRIEU: You know, we got -- we're in it. And so we got to stay in it until we're safe.

ACOSTA: It is such a brutal storm. I have to ask you this in case folks are just tuning in. We're on the phone with the former mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu. And you know, all too well the federal relief effort after Hurricane Katrina was notoriously inefficient -- insufficient and racked with fraud. You know, ice trucks going to the wrong state, and so on. I remember it all too well. I covered Katrina.

[18:40:06]

Do you think the federal government has learned all of the lessons? Has it made all the upgrades, all the reforms that it needs to make? Is FEMA in better shape now and the kind of shape now that Louisiana is going to need in the days ahead?

LANDRIEU: A thousand percent. I think that, you know, we've learned a lot as a country relating to homeland security, emergency preparedness, our ability to see each other, talk to each other, have inoperability, coordination between the federal, state and local areas. Now every administration is different but I know from listening to the reports that both the governor and the mayor of New Orleans, as well as the mayor of Baton Rouge have already talked to the White House.

We have a new FEMA director who has great experience. And I understand -- I know the National Guard are poised and ready to help as well. So I'm expecting a very cohesive, robust response to what we saw from lessons that have been learned, painful, hard lessons that were learned from Katrina.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. They were painful. Let's hope we don't relive those lessons.

All right, former Mayor Mitch Landrieu of the great city of New Orleans, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

LANDRIEU: Thank you, Jim. God bless you. Be safe, everybody.

ACOSTA: Nice talking to you. You as well. Thanks so much.

LANDRIEU: All right.

ACOSTA: And our special coverage of Hurricane Ida continues right after this. We'll go back to Houma, Louisiana, which is still being pounded by this very dangerous storm. That's coming up next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[18:46:00]

ACOSTA: And we have an update on this stunning video that we showed you earlier today that showed a roof being ripped off a clinic in Larose, Louisiana. Look at that video right there. You can just see the roof coming right off. CNN just spoke with the local sheriff's office. They said that there were people inside this clinic and that everyone there is stable and they are working on evacuation efforts after the storm dies down. But again, Larose, Louisiana, just seeing that roof being ripped off the clinic there.

And you can see the emergency sign right there at the front of the clinic. So you know there are patients inside. But we're told everybody is fine at the moment and authorities are going to get their rescuers. We'll get there just as soon as they can. There's water trickling from what we understand, but the structure, that will have to be looked at after the storm passes obviously.

Another badly hit area is Houma, Louisiana. That's where we join CNN's Jason Carroll, who is just getting hammered all day long.

Jason, we've been watching you hour after hour. These winds just howling and whipping around. It's just not letting up.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is not letting up, Jim. We are now on the backside, I'm told, of the eye of this horrific storm that just continues to take down and beat down on Houma. It's been like this for the past three hours. At a certain point the wind shifted direction and we saw even more damage.

From my vantage point here and again I'm using this brick structure right next to me here just as a way to stay on my feet here. We've seen all of the trees or many of the trees surrounding me be uprooted here. This tree standing here, another tree over here in this section here, that's been uprooted. A tree on the other side where we started doing our live reports when

we were talking to you, Jim, those trees uprooted. In addition to that reports still coming in about damages to structures here in Houma. Again, with all of this happening, very obviously emergency crews are going to have to hunker down in place. They're not going to be able to get out and see the true damage of what's happened here until this storm, until this beast of a hurricane, has passed through here.

In the meantime, all they can do is hunker down, tell those who did not evacuate to hunker down and stay in place. In terms of what we've been experiencing here, again, it's just been battering wind and rain for three hours. It's -- you know, again, I've covered category 5 hurricanes before. And it seems like this one has really been stubborn in terms of the amount of wind and rain that's been coming down here for the past several hours.

I talked to the sheriff's department about those who did not heed the evacuation warnings and decided to stay in place, and basically this person said, his prayers right now are for those people who are sheltering in place, who did not heed the warning and get out in time. I can tell you just from listening and standing here, and witnessing what we've been witnesses, the damages out there. You can hear it. You just can't see it because the visibility is so bad where we are. But the damage in Houma is definitely out there -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Absolutely, Jason Carroll. And I know you've covered so many of these storms. It looks like from the situation that you have experienced, this devastating situation you've experienced all day long, just getting out of that area is going to be very difficult for perhaps a day or two. You may have trees down all over that community and just make the roads totally impassable.

I mean, people need to understand, they tuned in hours ago here on CNN. Hurricane Ida is still a category 4 hurricane. That is just remarkable, Jason.

CARROLL: It's incredible. And you're absolutely right because a lot of these roads are not going to be passable.

[18:50:02]

You've got to consider the debris on the roadways and of course you've got to consider the downed powerlines, and when I spoke to an emergency official about that, his hope was that later on this evening as soon as all these passes, they can send out a small motorcade to try to get some sort of sense of what's happening out there especially out there on Highway 56, which heads out to Chauvin about a half an hour or so from where I'm standing, where there's a massive floodgate that's place out there.

But there are a number of homes on stilts that are dotting that highway along Highway 56 that looked precarious even before this storm got under way. And so their goal is going to be to head out there, see what sort of damage is out there, do what they can. But, again, he said they're going to be able to do a little bit of that this evening. Most of that, he predicts, they won't be able to do until tomorrow morning -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Jason Carroll, you stay safe. It's going to be a long night for Jason and his crew. We appreciate those updates all day long. Thanks so much.

A slow-moving hurricane of historic proportions is just pounding Louisiana with relentless intensity. Hurricane Ida is now punishing the state on the 13th -- excuse me, the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. We're now seeing some flooding in the New Orleans French Quarter and southeast of the city, water is now overtopping at least one levee. In Plaquemines Parish, already some 500,000 customers are without power. Across Louisiana earlier just a short while ago it was 400,000. It's jumped up to 500,000 homes without power in Louisiana.

Joining me now, retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore. He's the former commander of the Joint Task Force for Hurricane Katrina.

General, you've seen so many of these storms. We were just watching our Jason Carroll a few moments ago. I mean, to me, the thing I can't get over is we saw this was a category 4 hurricane earlier this morning. It's still a category 4 hurricane right now. That is -- that is remarkable.

LT. GEN. RUSSEL L. HONORE (RET), U.S. ARMY: Absolutely, Jim. I guess the observation here is a Captain Obvious moment. It's going to get worse before it gets better. And people need to be careful, check on their neighbors. Try to keep your communications up so you can text for help. Try to use texts because the internet system is going to get challenged with the towers. They're a lot better now than before Katrina, but communications is going to get to be a problem.

And to coordinate, you've got to be able to communicate, and that's going to get challenged, let alone the transportation system as the reporter were saying there, the road network, and even the river network will be disrupted.

ACOSTA: That's right. And, you know, we've been talking about this throughout the day. I know we've talked about this with you before, but as we're seeing some of the full effects of Hurricane Ida being unleashed across Louisiana, do you think enough of the lessons have been learned from Hurricane Katrina that Louisiana is going to be in better shape in terms of the federal response, in terms of the state and local response? Is that going to be improved this time around, do you think?

HONORE: Oh, I think so. This phase of the operation, FEMA working with the state of Louisiana, the phase where we come in and save lives, get people in temporary housing, that phase goes well, and they did well with that with Laura. It took a while for them to get the mobile homes in there, about 1700 to 2,000 of them already in place after Laura. The long pole is how they get the -- what they call public works done to the infrastructure because all that has to come out of supplemental money.

As a matter of fact, Jim, just a side note. The Senate is still sitting on the supplemental money for Laura so the public housing and other infrastructure had not been replaced yet, sir.

ACOSTA: Well, that is something else to behold. No question about it. But let me ask you this. Tomorrow morning when we wake up to what Ida has done to Louisiana and I suppose maybe parts of Mississippi, that whole Gulf Coast area, maybe even heading into Alabama and the panhandle of Florida, what is the first order of business? What needs to be tackled first?

HONORE: Search and rescue. Search and rescue and people calling in needing to be -- that need help. The search and rescue's job one is save lives. Everything else comes second to saving lives. And there are a lot of the National Guards there working with the parishes. There is backup federal helicopters coming in that the governor's requested. I mean, they're playing the playbook between the governor and FEMA has leaned forward and put a lot of stuff.

But even with everything ready, there will never be enough to get everybody when they want to get out. People are going to have to wait because it's going to take time, and it's going to be doing it in the most toughest conditions with power lines down, roads closed.

ACOSTA: Right.

[18:55:07]

HONORE: So you talk a lot of helicopter work and airboats going in to get people. So people have to stay safe, take care of one another, check on their neighbors and try to take care of one another until the first responders get there.

ACOSTA: That's right.

HONORE: But it's going to be a big search and rescue mission.

ACOSTA: That's great advice, and you're absolutely right, Lieutenant General Russel Honore. Thank you so much for that expertise, as always.

That's the news. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta covering this devastating hurricane, Ida. Pamela Brown, though, she takes up the coverage, CNN's coverage of Hurricane Ida. That will continue live after a quick break. Stay with us.

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