>>shepard: folks in southeast louisiana will be glad to hear that. rick, from the fox extreme weather center. the biggest problem is flooding overrode ways. people are having a hard time figuring out when you can go where. this morning our advanced crews left the hotel in new orleans to go scout locations for us to do like shots in south mississippi. along the way they realized a lot of people may not make it. look at this. >> this is eastbound on interstate 10 right up on lake pontchartrain. they had a serious problem this morning. the water, because of the way the storm is rotating, the winds are pushing right up on to interstate 10. so this is lake pontchartrain. all this water came up on to the highway and closed down the right two lanes and it looked like they might have to come over here and close this whole highway down. that would create enormous problems. come over here, they put all of this hay out, you can see the trucks finishing up the process. the hope is they can keep lake pontchartrain inside its banks and keep this highway open. that

reports of a levy breech in louisiana. we will have live updates for you coming right up. >> mitt talked about how he helped others he sees it as a privilege not a political talking point. >> you see, mr. president, real leaders don't follow polls real leaders change polls. >> we can't afford any more dispintments. we need a new direction. we need a new president. >> this is our america. this is the america we know because we built it. >> some quick takes from the first night of the republican convention. who did the best job and did the gop accomplish what it wanted to so far? let's go to tampa and watch fox news contributor and author of 50 things liberals love to hate it came out yesterday. mike cgallagher, good morning t you. >> chris kris geeting mixed reviews. what do you think? >> what you sees what you get with chris christie. he is not going to miss an opportunity to tell you what a great job he has done as governor of new jersey. he is kind of a typical new jersey giel. confident a little cocky a little brash, bu

hurricane isaac pounding the louisiana coast right now. it's a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 80 miles an hour. the fierce winds have already knocked out power to more than 300,000 homes and businesses. a tornado reportedly touched down near mobile alabama knocking down trees and power lines and a tornado watch has been issued from louisiana to the florida panhandle. forecasters say the slow-moving storm could dump as much as 20 inches of rain in some areas. david bernard, meteorologist for our miami station, wfor, has the latest. >> isaac continues to move across south louisiana. very intense rain, storm surge and high winds causing lots of power outages across the new orleans area. the radar overnight indicates that the rain is continuing not only in southeast louisiana, but also in mississippi and alabama. and the winds are going to blow a lot for the next 48 hours. in fact, the hurricane-force winds are going to be spreading across all of the new orleans area over the next few hours even into southern portions of mississi

bill, this looks like it's set up shop over louisiana. >> yeah, still in louisiana, but today we'll be saying good-bye to it as it moves towards arkansas. what a storm. they're called hurricanes for a reason. i know we get caught up in what category they are. as soon as they get the title hurricane they have to be taken seriously. this for a category 1 has been an impressive journey over the last 36 hours across southeast louisiana and mississippi. this morning we have a ban of heavy rain over downtown new orleans with gusts of 40 miles per hour. it will still be difficult this morning for the power crews to be out there getting power to a lot of people. the coast line of mississippi has been raked overnight. a few tornadoes. we're not completely done with the storm. as the day progresses today things will slowly get better. we've had a ton of rain. all the bright red are flash flood warnings through much of southern mississippi. as the storm pushes up towards the border of louisiana/mississippi, winds are gusting 40, 45 miles an hour. new orleans has gusts of 36 miles per hour. breezy

it's august and you're down around louisiana, southern louisiana. it's hot by any standard. the next few days looks like the temperatures will be the low 90s. that doesn't look like it's going to change, at least the next four to five days. for people who don't have the energy, it will be uncomfortable. >> so humid, rick, because all of this standing water, it's always humid here this time of year. but feels like temperatures in the low 100s and older people and people with kids. we just got word that 769,000 people are now without power in louisiana alone. three quarters of a million people will be in the dark today and probably tomorrow as well. rick, thanks very much. as you walk around here, it's become a media haven. but all of this over here is supposed to be dry land. down here is a main street. there are lots of houses back over there. we watched a lot of rescues affected earlier today. we'll take you on a tour in just a minute. we're also keeping a close eye on politics because for republicans, this is the biggest day of the year so far. mitt romney to give his big

." >>> this morning on "early today," louisiana landfall. hurricane isaac batters the gulf coast with fierce winds and heavy rain. >>> it's official, the republicans newly nominated presidential candidate takes center stage in tampa. >>> and martian landscape. stunning new images of the red >>> and martian landscape. stunning new images of the red planet. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> this is "early today" for wednesday, august 29, 2012. >> hello and good morning, i'm lynn berry. today we begin with the stalled storm. hurricane isaac slammed into louisiana last night. now forecasters are warning bad conditions may only get worse as rainfall adds up from the slow-moving storm. nbc's daniel league joins us now. she's in new orleans. good morning, danielle. >> reporter: good morning, lynn. wind and rain has been ripping through the french quarter here. then if you look over to my right shoulder behind me on a building, there is a sign that is just dangling in the wind. we've seen many of those signs ripped from buildings her

it's going to take until friday to get mort of louisiana, the center of -- north of louisiana, the center of circulation. that will allow rainfall totals to pile up in louisiana and mississippi. about you that will spread northward. arkansas, tennessee, missouri, places like that and even farther north as remnant moisture goes north into the weekend. this will have a wide ranging effect. hurricanes are not just coastal events. the river flooding can occur days and days after the rains have stopped, well inland and days after landfall has occurred. >> talking to rick knabb. thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >>> we'll be right back with more 9news now right after this. >>> today is wednesday, august 29. here's a check on the news before you go. a truck driver died in this fire early this morning on the fairfax county parkway at interstate 95. the fuel tanker crashed and caught fire. crews are trying to clean up the mess. right now it is causing delays on the fairfax county parkway and northbound 95. monika will have more on the delays in just a few minutes [ inaudible ] a p

we are in grand isle, louisiana, the eye of this hurricane. >> reporter: in grand isle, louisiana the darkness of the night makes this experience of sitting through hurricane isaac that much more dramatic. the wind has been howling through here in dramatic fashion at some points so loud it made you worried about whether you could hear the debris flying around to protect ourselves. that is one thing that is troubling about working this storm here in the darkness of grand isle. all the power is out except for the homes that have generators like the one we are working out of. but it's easy to lose track of how quickly the water is coming up around us. we are in the second floor of this home in grand isle. but look at the water that has collected. in one area you want to look at is the building just across from us here. you see the brick that is exposed just above the water line. once the water gets to the siding that's when we have problems. that's when the water gets into the ground floor of this house. we don't want that to happen. the water has gone inside the garage which is lower. w

the spca sent them from louisiana to dallas. and if you call the dallas spca 50% off any pet that you adopt starting tomorrow. that was relocated. if you have a little love in your heart go for it. >>> the republican national convention sunday in tampa, florida. the man of the hour is new jersey governor chris christie. his message to the gop base plus our coverage of hurricane isaac rolls on. a growing flooding threat as the storm slows down. up to two feet of rain possible in some areas. >>> new jersey's governor chris christie firing up the republican base using his brash style at the republican convention. some highlights from his speech? take a lins. >> the great ease -- take a listen. >> the greatest lesson is this one. she said there would be times in your life when you have to choose. choose between being loved and being respected. she said to always pick being respected. the love was always fleeting, but the respect could grow into real and lasting love. i have learned over time that there is just as much to leadership.

and louisiana, plaquemines parish and st. john the baptist parish have experienced some of the worst flooding. hundreds of thousands of people living this those states are without power right now. >>> the republican national convention wraps up tonight. last night, the party rolled out some of its biggest names to the stage including running mate paul ryan. we have a report. >> reporter: it is a prime-time debut for the vice presidential nominee, paul ryan, delivering his acceptance speech. >> i accept the duty to help lead our nation out of a jobs crisis and back to prosperity and i know we can do this. >> reporter: the 42-year-old lawmaker has been a harsh critic of the president and a favorite target for the democrats. >> what did taxpayers get out of the obama stimulus? more debt. that money wasn't just spent and wasted. it was borrowed, spent and wasted. >> reporter: former secretary of state condoleezza rice, thought to be a possible vice presidential contender, also addressed the crowd. >> my fellow americans, we do no

in louisiana. i don't know if you can count this with you as one of them, but we are getting close. check out the ponding over here, and flying debris is everywhere. the squall is coming from this direction now. it is changing directions on us, knocking me over a bit, that is one of the challenges of being out here. the wind keeps changing the direction, the rain keeping changing in intensity. it's intense now, as you can see, let's get back to the street flooding. it is isolated flooding, we cannot say it's isolated flooding. but with rainfall this intense, natalie, there will be isolated street flooding, they said there would be, so it's not unexpected but as you can see here in front of me, with the flooding and debris over here, it's a big factor and we are now getting reports of downed power lines and downed trees in more areas of the city. >> well, that was quite a squall we just saw hit you there as you were talking. >> reporter: it was. >> and how many of those have you been enduring and ho

more than 700,000 homes and businesses lost power in louisiana. the storm is has threatening to spin off tornadoes. at least three twisters were reported to have touched down in mississippi. the high floodwaters trapped many residents in their homes. in plaquemines parish, the national guard had to knock out a window. officials say a levee there is under so much pressure, pun parish in louisiana will be flooded to relieve it. bigad shaban is in new orleans this morning with more. >> reporter: good morning to you. although strong winds and bands of rain have let up -- here in the state as well as mississippi, it's also sending storm surges of up to 12 feet high, which has caused severe flooding in communities not far from here. neighbors stood in bunches, huddled together in the wind and rain waiting to be rescued. just before noon when isaac's high winds pushed a tidal surge of water out of lake pontchartrain and into the town of la plas. 30 miles west of new orleans. >> all of a sudden the water started rising. >> the flooding caught nearly every

but terrell, louisiana will have to continue taking the brunt of the storm. likely through thursday. >> bigad, there's a lot of confidence in that improved levee and pumping system that's out there right now. so much confidence that many residents have decided to stay put. what are they telling you this morning? >> reporter: you know, i think a lot of the residents took the initiative, i think, to leave on their own but many are listening to officials saying listen, this is a different levee system than what failed in this area and so many low-lying communities seven years ago. $14 billion makeover essentially. the city officials are confident it will hold. >> we'll be watching it as well from here. bigad, thank you. >>> tropical storm kirk is gathering strength in the atlantic. has sustained winds of 45 miles per hour and centered 1200 northeast of the northern leeward islands. right now it poses no threat to land. >>> after nearly six years of campaigning and a failed bit at the nomination in 2008. mitt romney will be the republican candidate for november.

but the louisiana law enforcement officials are saying they cannot force anyone out of their home a louisiana state trooper came up here earlier and said that it seems like for the most part people around the lake have heeded evacuation warnings and have left. people with good memories of seven years ago tomorrow. casey stegall live here in the new orleans area. this is the french quarter, bourbon street here. i have never seen it this shut down, ever. and 40 years of coming here and 9 hurricanes covered here. this is the most boarded up, shutdown and evacuated i have ever seen the french quarter. our friends at the local fox station tell us they have never seen it either. folks who live here day in and day out say the level of evacuation here, he is especially no mandatory evacuation. only when the storm is a category 3. pleased how many people have some things are. some people carrying on life and the rest. these clouds coming in whipping in over these buildings, in fact with the buildings in the foreground. can you see how quickly they're moving. those bands just whipping around the city p

brian todd, he is looking at the preps that are going on in louisiana. >> reporter: louisiana residents prepare for a familiar menace. an approaching storm. lurking in the minds of many, the catastrophe of hurricane katrina in new orleans in 2005. levees overtopped, thousands flooded out, and a city paralyzed for weeks. a city that in some ways is still struggling to recover. could that happen again? this reassurance from the mayor of new orleans. >> i want to assure you all that there is nothing that this storm is going to bring us that we do not believe that we are pry pepd to handle. >> reporter: experts agree since katrina hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements to levees, canals and pumping stations have made new orleans better prepared for flooding. they say if a perfect storm were to hit new orleans, they couldn't rule out flooding. we spoke to tim on a local oversight board for flood protection. he says the levees are exponentially better than before katrina, built to withstand the storm strength that comes once every 100 years. he says the new construction should be bui

it won't exit the state of louisiana until thursday evening. willie, a lot of our latest projections are showing that the rains in new orleans will continue at least 24 hours more. it looks like the levees are holding. that's good. we've probably seen the worst of the storm surge. we hope those pumps can keep up with all the water falling from the sky. >> bill, real quick, what does it mean that the storm made landfall yesterday, then they say it backed off and made a second landfall again overnight. what does that mean exactly? >> well, if you look at a map of louisiana, the mouth of the mississippi river, the delta there, goes pretty far out into the gulf. it actually went, crossed that, stalled out, then went back over the water again. and that was over water last night for about ten hours kind of tried to keep its intensity, if not strengthen. and then it moved on shore again in louisiana. it's made its final landfall. so that's why, willie. it crossed land, went back over the ocean and now it's back over land again. >> all right. bill kari

in louisiana. i don't know if you can count this with you as one of them, but we are getting close. check out the ponding over here, and flying debris is everywhere. the squall is coming from this direction now. it is changing directions on us, knocking me over a bit, that is one of the challenges of being out here. the wind keeps changing the direction, the rain keeping changing in intensity. it's intense now, as you can see, let's get back to the street flooding. it is isolated flooding, we cannot say it's isolated flooding. but with rainfall this intense, natalie, there will be ilated street flooding, they said there would be, so it's not unexpected but as you can see here in front of me, with the flooding and debris over here, it's a big factor and we are now getting reports of downed power lines and downed trees in more areas of the city. >> well, that was quite a squall we just saw hit you there as you were talking. >> reporter: it was. >> and how many of those have you been enduring and how

louisiana, the louisiana offshore oil port known as loop stopped taking maritime deliveries of foreign crude. that's another million fewer barrels per day in the country's oil supply. isaac's timing could hardly be worse. other recent disasters have been pushing oil prices higher. like the explosion over the weekend at this venezuelan refinery-- the world's second largest. and the fire is still burning. and earlier this month, another fire damaged a chevron refinery in california. adam siminsky is director of the u.s. energy information administration. >> as long as there's no significant flooding that could do longer-lasting damage, the refineries could be back up and running again, too, probably over the course of one or not more than two weeks. >> reporter: just the threat of isaac, 78% of oil well production out of the gulf has already been shut down and, scott, with all these disruptions, siminsky told us he expects gas prizes to keep rising through labor day and then start to fall again. >> pelley: mark, thank you. we came here to tampa, of course, to cover the republican nationa

but regardless any hurricane coming to southeast louisiana is a big, big problem. tampa was rather concerned with the convention in town and isaac in the gulf of mexico. with more on that, here's randall pinkston. >>> 53,000 people west of new orleans have been ordered to evacuate. many residents are heeding the warning, filling up their cars and heading inland. >> we are going to take off. we went through katrina and had a bad experience with that. >> reporter: in mississippi the surf is starting to kick up at tropical storm isaac strengthens in the gulf of mexico. >> we are forecasting it to become a hurricane. if not today then today. >> reporter: isaac is expected to become a category 1 hurricane before it hits land late tuesday or early wednesday, which is the seventh anniversary of headquarter katrina. the governors of florida, alabama, mississippi and louisiana have all declared states of emergency. the storm is expected to bring at least 65 miles per hour winds, dumping more than a foot of rain on the gulf coast states. >> we are strongly encouraging those

because at this hour, isaac is pounding louisiana. the streets here in new orleans are empty, residents are indoors, wondering if the city is ready. >> reporter: hurricane isaac made landfall in louisiana, packing 80 mile-per-hour winds and whipping up the surf dumping heavy rain and causing flooding along the gulf. it is only going to get worse. >> this is a very dangerous storm. and with waters rising as quickly as they could be, the loss of life is a real possibility. >> this know it going to be over quick. this is not a fast-moving storm. >> reporter: this nasa image of isaac shows how it has grown and become more organized. life has come to a halt in places like gulfport, mississippi. buildings boarded up, residents hunkered down. no trains, planes, or school. and power outages are expected. >> use common sense. don't go outside and put yourself or others in a dangerous position. >> reporter: shelters are filling with those who heeded warnings from all levels. >> now is not the time to tempt fate. now is not the time to dismiss o

the low-lying areas of louisiana. florida, even when isaac was over the gulf of mexico and moving in, florida, some parts experienced heavy flooding. there is worry here that this will be a very big test for the levees here. it is supposed to continue, rob, to rain all night. we could see 24 hours of nonstop rain. >> wow. and, i was reading that it touched land in plaquemines parish, the president of the parish said it had blown the roof off of his house and water was just pouring in. what is the damage like where isaac has made landfall? >> you are right. enormous damage down there. reports of trees being down. power lines being down. that was the eye of the storm. so far, not too much damage here. tonight in new orleans. but we're expecting the heavy weather to continue for quite some time. so we'll have to assess the damage, you know, later tomorrow. later today. >> late tir today. see what we learn when the sun comes up. won't be pretty in some areas. thank you again. live in storm-battered new orleans. as isaac b

more than 700,000 homes and businesses lost power in louisiana. the storm is has threatening to spin off tornadoes. at least three twisters were reported to have touched down in mississippi. the high floodwaters trapped many residents in their homes. in plaquemines parish, the national guard had to knock out a window to rescue a man trapped in his attic with his four dogs. officials say a levee there is under so much pressure, pun parish in louisiana will be flooded to relieve it. bigad shaban is in new orleans this morning with more. bigad, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning to you. although strong winds and bands of rain have let up here in new orleans, isaac continues to soak much of coastal louisiana. here in the state as well as mississippi, it's also sending storm surges of up to 12 feet high, which has caused severe flooding in communities not far from here. neighbors stood in bunches, huddled together in the wind and rain waiting to be rescued. just before noon when isaac's high winds pushed a tidal surge of water out of lake p

southern mississippi, southeastern louisiana. and then it does slowly track later tonight and tomorrow up into parts of arkansas and then head farther knot. right now it is a category 1 hurricane with 80-mile-per-hour winds heading to the west northwest at eight miles an hour. maintaining category 1 strength throughout the day today. and then it will diminish to a tropical low as it gets over northern louisiana. then tracks across arkansas into missouri, illinois, u indiana, friday and saturday. sunday, takes a turn to the right and comes our way. some of the remnants perhaps here for the labor day weekend. right now, high pressure over us. clear sky. delightful morning. low humidity. temperatures in light green in the 60s. most of virginia and maryland, eastern shore, 50s out of the mountains and parts of the shenandoah valley. near 70 now at reagan national. later today into the mid 80s. by mid afternoon, lots of sun with low humidity. more of the same on thursday. friday getting a little more humid, near 90. some of that steam

. >>> and that's causing emergency evacuations in both louisiana and mississippi. we've got the latest of what's left of isaac, straight ahead. >>> also, mitt romney making it official tonight. accepting the republican nomination for president. his vice presidential running mate, giving conventiongoers exactly what they wanted. >>> and the result of a decades'-long study of monkeys. raising the question this morning, is it really worth cutting down your calories? >>> good morning, everybody. i'm rob nelson. >> and i'm diana perez. paula faris is on assignment. we begin this thursday, with misery raining down from tropical storm isaac. the floodwaters that one official in louisiana warns are rising shockingly fast. >> the latest this morning. president obama just signed disaster declarations for hard-hit parts of louisiana and mississippi. meanwhile, though, thousands of folks in that flood zone is waiting for crews to evacuate them. and 750,000 homes and businesses are without power. brand brandi hitt is live in new orleans this morning. >> reporter: good morning,

lafayette, louisiana, winds gusting to 90 miles per hour. so we are talking 24 hours from now,ats least according to this one model, instead of pulling up to the northwest, staying here and hugging the coastline, all the oil refineries and the platforms that are right here, a lot of them, obviously, closed down. but that will continue to cause problems. because it will stay over water, won't necessarily weakeb very much. if it does go more inland that, would be good news because the storm weakens. but that is also a worstst-case scenario for new orleans. if this goes this direction, that helps new orleans a bit. the winds wouldn't be as strong, the rain is going to be there, no matter what. we will be dealing with that for a long time. go to thursday afternoon, we are still there, in louisiana, winds in monroe, gusting to 60 miles per hour. we have a long road ahead of us from this storm, at least 36 hours for louisiana from now. >> you know how we know that the night is getting long? rick has his jacket on, his tie is tied. by the end of th

it shows how much flooding it could generate through central louisiana. here's the future projection of the system. we think it will make a consider of through arkansas, the great lakes. this is the beginning of our labor day weekend. it brings it into maryland, pennsylvania, new england as we go into labor and leftever remnants. seven and a half inches of rain. unbelievable, hammond, louisiana. i'm sure the whole campus is under water right now. take a look at orange beach. this is gulf source, alabama. it continues to lash the gulf beaches. we had storm surges, some spots higher. the shape of the coastline is a big deal we you talk about land falling systems, that muddy coast along louisiana. baltimore 85. no flooding here. dry sunny conditions. sunset getting earlier by the day. sunset 7:41, dry comfortable weather, mid-80s. winds from the north and west absolutely spectacular bringing in dry comfortable air. the nearest humid city would be norfolk, virginia. as we look plat model projections, all the rain with isaac will be there tomorrow. 24 hours of

right now most of louisiana is under state of emergency. more than 700,000 homes and businesses have no power. new orleans is under ape curfew. dusk to dawn. abc's matt gutman is there. good morning, matt. >> reporter: rob, diana, we have been hearing increasing reports of significant destruction, tremendous amount of flooding, in la plaz. apparently according to the sheriff's office, 200 people already evacuated. according to the governor, bobby jindal, 3,000 waiting for evacuation. 4 to 5 feet of flooding across this town. the folks there telling me they haven't seen this type of flooding in 40 years. it's much worse than katrina, they say. certain parts that generally flood during heavy rains. parts of town that never flood. developments that have never seen significant flooding and they're entirely submerged right now. the person from the sheriff's office i was talking to turned out to be the chef rsheriff's w. all hands on deck. several hundred from the sheriff's department, in flat-bottom boats, trudging through waist-high or higher w

el gobernador de louisiana, diajo que le parece poca la ayuda ofrecida lp presidente obama, y dijo que el gobierno federal deberÍa asumir todos los gastos de isaac. la producciÓn petrolera se paralizÓ, y aumentarÁ pÍsimas posibilidades que el gobierno libere reservar para evitar que el barril aumente, y le ponga presiÓn a la frÁgil economÍa nacional, desde new orleans, jorge viera. >>> el alcalde de new orleans, se refiriÓ como la trinchera en la lucha contra isaac, no todos quisieron abandonar la ciudad, por experiencias pasadas, la familia lÓpez se quedo, platicamos, y esto dijeron. >>> estoy viendo. creo. >>> muchas gracias enrique acevedo, directamente desde new orleans, y desde embates de la naturaleza, vamos a la polÍtica en ptampa, se escucharneo voces de hispanos, brian sandoval, y cruz, y la primera dama de puerto rico, vela que presentaÁa a mitt romney esposa del ahora oficial mitt romney, lourdes en el piso, dice quÉ pasÓ hoy. >>> para mitt romney fue un largo y difÍcil camino llegar hasta esta convenciÓn republicana que hoy cumple con la misiÓn mÁs importa

on the louisiana line with alabama. look at that. huge surf and normally these are the type of beaches where you see almost no wave action and right now looks like a wild east coast day. incredible weather. across the gulf coast. 70 baltimore, we have humidity at 84%. the statewide temperatures are coming down now here locally as cooler, dryer air drifts in out of the north and west. look at this alarm area of dry air. place isn't sleeping weather. why not? 63, nice and dry. part of the summer we wait for. i tell you that. sunny day tomorrow. mid80s though. low humidity. tomorrow night down to 58, mostly clear, calm and cool. hotter by friday. that sun but i still think the humidity manageable and labor damon and tuesday. >> more news coming up. >> here is bill with what you will see on night line. >> coming up, i will take you in to the center of the storm as isaac slams into the gulf coast. plus my colleague has all the days news on the republican national convention. right after you. follow the wings. . >>> service dogs take lots

finally in 1912, louisiana adopted the flag we see today. >> the louisiana flag, i love, because it's a story of unconditional love. what the settlers saw, according to louisiana legend, when they first arrived there were these brown pelicans. and if food was scarce, what the mother pelicans would do was peck at their breasts until they bled, and they would feed that to their young. so, on the state flag, you see a mother feeding three baby brown pelicans. >> eventually, louisiana adopted the brown pelican as its official state bird. by the way, louisiana also has an official state doughnut called a beignet. it's fried dough with powdered sugar on top. fortunately, the official state drink is milk. with flag facts, i'm kristen. >> adopting a dog is pretty easy. animal shelters are almost always on the lookout for good owners. but as hannah reports, there's a lot more to becoming a friend to man's best friend. >> so, you want to adopt a dog, but you don't exactly know how to properly care for one. here's a way to learn how. >> volunteering at an animal shelter is a wonderful thing to d

i came up in louisiana and i saw b.b. king, which can vibrate a left hand like no other guitar player. tavis: right. >> i said, "if i can learn to play like him," and then they brought on guitar slim, and they said, "ladies and gentlemen, guitar slim," and i did not see no guitar player. he comes in the door with a 150-foot cord. i said, "i want to play like b.b., but i want to act like slim." tavis: yes. [laughter] >> so that is where i got that from. i do not have nothing original, anything. most of us got, we learned it from someone else. tavis: that's why i love you. you're so modest, so modest. so why, then, if other people at the level of hendrix and the beatles and the stones are being influenced by your style, why did it take you so long to get around to recording your own stuff? >> i went into chicago and at that time chess record was one of the biggest blues labels where was. muddy waters was in his good health howling wolf and little wanda, who had made this music, and they was, like, saying, "huh, i got a plat

power in louisiana alone. flooding is reported along the mississippi coast and water spilled over one levee southeast of new orleans. we want to go to byron pitts in new orleans first. good morning, byron. >> good morning. here in new orleans we've seen wind gusts north of 80 miles per hour. trees are down, streets are flooded, power outages widespread. all to be expected. as bad as it is here, it's worse further south. police officers are out in these weather conditions going door to door looking for people who declined their order to evacuate. overnight as hurricane isaac dumped more than an inch of year every hour, most people in new orleans heeded mayor mitch landrieu's caution. >> we're in the heart of this fight. we're in the hunker down phase. >> we rode with national guard troops who along with new orleans police patrolled the mostly empty streets. a major problem? more than 350,000 without power across louisiana. >> see that. >> home video captured power lines popping in the storm. low-lying communiti

approaching the northern gulf coast and southeastern louisiana. so do not plan it move anywhere tomorrow. do it tonight and get there instead. worst impacts are between these time frames. tuesday evening into wednesday morning with the storm affecting all the way from pensacola to louisiana, expecting it to be a hurricane. could be category 2. prepare for category 2. forecast is category 1. overnight tomorrow night into wednesday morning and look at this on thursday, by thursday morning now, we are talking about two and half days from now, still winds and rain affecting the hurricane zone there where you are tamron, over into mississippi and alabama. this is going to be a long slow slog as this thing moves over. and tamron, there in new orleans, winds may be hire than they were in katrina. levies should be okay but winds may be higher. so it's a long duration event, tamron? >> bryan, thank you very much. let me bring in lieutenant colonel, louisiana deputy mayor of public safety. thank you for your time. i know you've got a lot going on. you may h

you have louisiana and mississippi in particular here. isaac, as you know, has caused some severe flooding in those states, and standing water may not recede for days. i want to bring in dr. sanjay gupta. just talking about this, sanjay, you would think that the flooding in these states, the extreme flooding, would increase, the possibility that one could be affected by west nile. >> absolutely, you would think that, brooke, because of all the extra water, but we know a lot about just how these mosquitos and the breeding grounds of these mosquitos behave. and what you find, and this may be a little bit counterintuitive, is that that those floodwaters tend to actually really disrupt the existing breeding grounds of these mosquitos. those mosquitos have been causing so much trouble. so the breeding grounds get disrupted, the mosquitos are still there, and eventually they could reestablish breeding grounds, but what they find is that typically, it's a bit of a wash. there's really hardly any change in terms of the overall number of cases wit

joining me now on the phone from monroe louisiana, the head of northeast louisiana wholesale oil and gas. they supply about 40 gas stations there. first give me an update, what are the conditions like right now for you? what is the mood? are people taking cover? >> our weather right now is fairly good up here in north louisiana. we are in the northeast corner of louisiana. we are seeing a little bit more traffic through our stores last night and this morning. but in general, we're not seeing any large influx of people moving out of south louisiana yet to come up to any of the facilities that they have for any evacuees. cheryl: let's talk about this will do for gasoline supply. are you seeing a big rush of drivers? as we have been hearing from the frat -- -- as we have been hearing from the forecasters, this is the type of hurricane that is expected to kind of sit over the state of louisiana. do you see a panic move on driver's parts to fill up now and prepare for what could be a rough couple of days? >> we are seeing some in louisiana, my counterparts in south louisiana they have a r

the heavy rains will be slow to leave louisiana. oklahoma and arkansas would be happy to get the rain. they've had record drought. that moisture will drift into the upper midwest and into the mid-atlantic for monday and tuesday in particular. all right. tonight, 60, low humidity. gorgeous weather. 86 tomorrow, still dry, still pleasant. we still won't have the humidity. on friday it will get hotter, 92. 90 saturday. saturday you could see cloud cover and sunday a day where we could see some showers plate in the evening. best chances of rain labor day monday into the day on tuesday. wednesday looks like we'll begin to see dry weather returning, so, again, it's one of those scenarios where we have a changing seven-day forecast and it all depends on the movement of what's left of isaac, so again, keep an eye on the forecast here at abc2. we'll continue to update it. dried out saturday. most of sunday would be dry. >> okay. we'll keep an eye on this. >>> coming up, topics like college students, living at home, caring for aging parents,

lafayette, louisiana, winds gusting to 90 miles per hour. so we are talking 24 hours from now,ats least according to this one model, instead of pulling up to the northwest, staying here and hugging the coastline, all the oil refineries and the platforms that are right here, a lot of them, obviously, closed down. but that will continue to cause problems. because it will stay over water, won't necessarily weakeb very much. if it does go more inland that, would be good news because the storm weakens. but that is also a worst-case scenario for new orleans. if this goes this direction, that helps new orleans a bit. the winds wouldn't be as strong, the rain is going to be there, no matter what. we will be dealing with that for a long time. go to thursday afternoon, we are still there, in louisiana, winds in monroe, gusting to 60 miles per hour. we have a long road ahead of us from this storm, at least 36 hours for louisiana from now. >> you know how we know that the night is getting long? rick has his jacket on, his tie is tied. by the end of the