Top Story with Tom Llamas - Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world.

Tonight, we're live from New Orleans as Hurricane Francine makes landfall along coastal Louisiana. The hurricane intensifying to a dangerous category two just before it moved on shore. The storm unleashing torrential rains, destructive winds, and life-threatening storm surge. Flash flooding and tornadoes posing a serious risk to the region, millions hunkering down with all flights in and out of the Big Easy canceled. Tonight, we are going to speak to officials about the conditions that are rapidly deteriorating. rating. The state of emergency stretching across the Gulf Coast, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama, feeling Francine's impacts. At this hour, power outages mounting as the hurricane batters the region, meteorologists Bill Karen standing by with the latest track and the timing. Trump's rough night,

former President Trump and Vice President Harris, the first time meeting on a debate stage, devolving into fiery attacks, the two exchanging punches over policy, but it was Trump, falling right for Harris's traps that sent him into a tirade. So will we see them face off again ahead of the election and a surprise Harris endorsement from Taylor Swift nearly overshadowing the entire night? Will it make a difference? Debunking one of the most viral moments of the presidential debate, former President Trump pushing baseless claims about immigrants in Ohio eating pets. We are on the ground in Springfield, Ohio, speaking with residents and officials about how these false rumors ascended to the national stage. Wildfires out west raging out of control, terrifying video showing a woman barefoot surrounded by a wall of flames.

Heartbreak and devastation, as one man describes the moment, he watched his dream home burn to the ground. The arrest just made as first responders raced to get the upper hand on the blaze. And honoring the 9-11 victims, 23 years after the terror attacks, the memorial services across the country, paying tribute to the lives lost, and the incredible tribute overseas. city firefighters on a biking trip in Ireland to remember the first responders who made the ultimate sacrifice that day. A special edition of Top Story from the Hurricane Zone starts right now. And good evening. Top Story coming to you live tonight from New Orleans as Hurricane Francine makes landfall as a powerful category two storm. This storm,

rapidly intensifying as it quickly approached the Gulf Coast. Millions right now under a state of emergency at this hour. Here in New Orleans, it's really starting to pick up as the storm continues to push on shore and want to show you what the conditions are like outside. Because right now we are just above an overhang, I should say just below an overhang. This is where we're keeping our team safe and where we can anchor the broadcast coherently. Right now in New Orleans, we're in the Lakeview area. The wind does here about 60 miles per hour.

The Big Easy is expected to get wind gusts up to 100 miles per hour. And even though this city has faced hurricanes that are bigger and stronger, as we mentioned the top of this broadcast, this one intensified right before landfall near Morgan City going from a Category 1 to a Category 2. Just behind me here, this is Lake Pontchartrain, right? You can see the waves crashing. This is going to be part of the storm surge that's going to hit New Orleans over the next couple of hours. This city, the Big Easy, sits between Lake Pontchatrain and the Mississippi River.

And that's why water is always a big concern. It's always a big fear. But tonight, there's also the threat of tornadoes. We're going to get into that a little later with Bill Cairns. Usually in this area during big storms, people come out here to check out what's happening to test Mother Nature, if you will. Tonight, that's not happening, at least not right now, because the wind is picking up. Things are getting more and more intense by the minute. Police have asked everyone to stay off the grounds in places like Morgan City.

Police aren't even patrolling right now. They're just standing by trying to make sure people. people are okay because it's too dangerous for them to keep their cars on the roads, the visibility, the wind, just way too intense right now. We've also gotten other alerts from places like Jefferson Parish, which are the suburbs around New Orleans, asking people to conserve water at this point because they're afraid with all that water coming into the city, into the suburbs. Some of their pipes may get backed up. So there's a lot happening right now when it comes to hurricane francing all over southern Louisiana. Let's take a live look right now at the French

quarter. The storm making landfall in Terrebonne Parish, roughly 90 miles southwest of New Orleans, but you can feel it there in the French Quarter as we see those live pictures. Now the dramatic video is right where that eye wall is coming over, the intense wind gusts, the heavy downpours. That's where it made landfall and that's where we're seeing that very dramatic video you're seeing on your screen right here. Conditions continue to worsen also in New Orleans, the city, no stranger, as I mentioned, the dangerous hurricanes. Tonight, the Big Easy facing the threat of tornadoes, mentioned, flash flooding, torrential rains, and damaging winds. The storm quickly plunging thousands into darkness.

Right now, more than 50,000 are without power, and that number is expected to rise. Francine will continue on a collision course through the south, several states on high alert as this hurricane charges further inland. We have team coverage this evening. Our reporters are spread out across the region, and meteorologist Bill Carrens is standing by with the latest on the timing and the impacts. Back here in New Orleans, the situation is rapidly spiraling. Tonight, Hurricane Francine lashing to Louisiana coast.

The massive storm barreling into the New Orleans area and drenching surrounding communities. Take this storm seriously. It is a serious storm. The warm waters of the Gulf strengthening the powerful system, now a Category 2 hurricane. Wind gusts churning out 100 miles per hour, dangerous storm surge slamming into the coast, with pounding rain and flash flooding threatening many neighborhoods. wasn't really taking the serious until now I see it's really real and besides dealing with the hurricane first responders in New Orleans also putting out a fire in the bywater district you can see the firefighters actually inside that structure the massive whole caused by the fire as the

rain bans from Hurricane Francis come down on them gas stations shut down flights canceled businesses boarded up and the National Guard on the move a national guard truck sliding off the road, no injuries were reported. The president approving a FEMA emergency declaration for the state. The time to evacuate has now passed. It is the time to go to ground and hunker down. Flood watches are in place for 9 million people from Louisiana to Florida. These are communities that still bear the scars of past hurricanes. Tonight they're once again bracing as another massive storm makes its move. I'm just praying and acts of law to protect us. Okay, for more on the state of emergency here in Louisiana. I want to bring in Captain John Schaff.

He's the Morgan City Police Captain. And Captain, I had a chance to speak to you about an hour ago. Walk our viewers through what you're experiencing. I'm Ellison Barber. For our viewers, let us show you that map we were just looking at. You see where Morgan City, Louisiana is. It's about 80 miles west of New Orleans, and it's right near where Hurricane Francine just made landfall. The National Guard deployed to Morgan City today to help with hurricane response efforts. And new video just coming in of a National Guard tanker crashed on the site of a rain-covered road there. Some scary stuff. Captain Schaff joins us now on the phone. Thank you for joining Top Story tonight, or on Zoom, rather, even

better for us. We appreciate you taking the time on what I know is a really busy evening for you. Talk to us about what is happening in your area right now. How is it looking and how are you and your team preparing? Past couple hours, we've been in the heart of this storm. We're now experiencing the highest rain totals and the highest wind gusts that we've seen that started a couple hours ago. We are seeing some street flooding, power outages and damage due to the storm. We preparing, just like we do any other storm, make sure everybody stays in place, shelter in place, stay off the streets, allow us to assess the damage, and make sure everything's safe before getting out the house. How are residents responding to the guidance you and your team are issuing? Does it seem like they're heating the warnings?

Majority of it, yes. We do have some sightseers that are out there riding around that we're having to see. say go home, but the majority of our residents understand the urgency of what it is to listen to our advisories, and they are staying in. So we thank them for that. What in the next 24 hours is going to be the primary focus for you? Well, next couple hours, we're hoping the storm, at least the bulk of the storm gets out of here, and we'll be able to get back on the streets and assess what type of damage we have. After we have an excellent, excellent city cruise, excellent electrical department that are going to access everything and begin to repair.

And then we could go ahead and lift the curfew, which is going to lift at 6 a.m. in the morning for everybody to come out and start assessing whatever they have damaged. All right. Well, Captain, we appreciate you taking the time tonight, and we hope that conditions stay a little safer for you and your team and that you are able to keep people there safe. Thank you for your time and the work that you do. I'm going to send it back over to Tom, who was on the great. as our viewers know in Louisiana. Hey Tom. All right, Allison, we thank you for that, and we thank you, of course, for backing us up here. As the conditions are getting worse,

and we want to be completely transparent with our viewers, the wind is starting to pick up. We are live using all the best technology that NBC News has, but at times, Mother Nature is more powerful and it can knock you off the air, but we're back up here. I do want to go to my friend and my colleague, Jesse Kirsch, who's live in New Orleans downtown, not too far from Bourbon Street. Jesse, talk to me about what you are seeing there with your team. Yeah, Tom, we're in the French Quarter, Bourbon Street, for reference, back there, and it runs in that direction for people who have been here before for a vacation. And just to what you said about the wind speed, I just took a check of the wind.

It's been mostly around 15, but we've got at least one gust that I just saw around 21 miles per hour. So wind speed is starting to pick up a little bit more. The rain getting heavier as you threw to me just now, Tom. This gives you an idea of what the wind is doing here downtown. Right now, I do see some headlights from a vehicle. back there, appears to be some kind of truck. We have seen some car traffic, but largely this downtown area around Canal Street has been empty. I also want to point to, and I don't know if it'll read, because it's starting to get dark air, Tom, but I've been watching some of the

water that's been funneling over here to this train. That's going smoothly so far, and I've spoken with a member of City Council here in New Orleans earlier, and he said they have still been trying to help get people who don't have anywhere to be to a homeless shelter to ride out the store. Officials have made it clear. At this point, you should not be out. You should be sheltering in place. We are well past the time for evacuations. And I can tell you, Tom, I'm actually going to take out our anemometer again, which measures the wind speed because the wind is definitely starting to pick up just a little bit more. Of course, as I say, it calms down again. But the wind and the rain is definitely picking up here in downtown New Orleans as we are now looking at a

potential direct hit in this city from Hurricane Francine, Tom. And checking the wind speed Right now, here comes another strong gust. We'll see what it gives us. Right around 20 miles per hour at 19.6 or so. That's where it topped out that blast. But I've seen one over 21, so the winds are starting to pick up out here, Tom. Yeah, the wind's a little, I think, more powerful over here

because we're in open space by the lake. I do want to ask you, are people heating the warning? Are they staying off the streets? Because I've covered a lot of hurricanes in New Orleans, a lot of storms. People can get cavalier. People obviously come to New Orleans for a good time. Are people listening to the warnings tonight?

It seems like it, Tom. I know we've definitely got people standing outside where we're at a cupboard right near a hotel. You know, we've largely not seen a lot of people out here. I can tell you downtown New Orleans is pretty much been a ghost town. And yesterday ahead of this, we saw people lining up around the block to get sand bags to help protect the property. And I can also tell you that we went to a grocery store to get supplies of our own. And when we went there, most of the bottled water section was completely cleared out. bottle water. They had some of the flavored water. But, you know, basic staple items were

starting to be cleared out. So clearly people were paying attention to this. And the other thing to keep note of here, Tom, this storm formed closer to Louisiana than others typically might, and that means less time to prepare. And I'm sure that's something will be keeping an eye on in the aftermath of anyone who might have wanted more time to get prepared. But I know the city was working in a speedy fashion to get those sandbags available to people starting yesterday, Tom. All right, Jesse Kerrish for us. Near Bourbon Street, in downtown New Orleans. Jesse, you and your team stay safe. Get to some cover right now.

I want to bring in Bill Cairns for more on Hurricane Francine's path. And Bill, I'm going to actually go out again outside, closer to the lake, because I think this is important for the viewers to understand where we are in Lakeview. And you can kind of walk us through what's happening right now. I'd say like minute by minute it's getting more and more intense. We mentioned we're feeling some of those bigger wind gusts. And Bill, I know you can see my shot here and what we're going through here. What's happening over New Orleans right? Because I got some information that the storm was actually downgraded to Category 1? Yeah, that's expected, a slowly weekend, but now, I mean, it's only dropped by a couple

miles per hour, so that's not a big deal. You can see where Tom is there, and you can leave the shot back up, and you can kind of see the trees behind him and the way his clothes are blowing there. We just had a gust of 53 miles per hour at the airport in New Orleans, and 50 is like my rule of thumb. Once you get over 50, that's when you start getting power outages, and those gusts will become more frequent as you get closer to that center of that storm. Now, I'm not sure you're going to go right through the eye. You may never get in the calm time, but you may go through that eastern eye wall of the storm. And so you may be rough right through midnight. And then after about midnight, everything in New Orleans is going to kind of quiet down a little

bit. So let me show you on the map here. This is the eye, very obvious. It's 90 miles wide. It's huge. Doesn't mean the storm is like, you know, super strong. But the eye is just enormous. And the strongest winds wrap around the eye, especially near the thunderstorms, which are colored in here with the brighter colors of red and the pinks. So this is where the wind damage is taking place. When this went through Dolak earlier, 96 mile power wind gusts. I can guarantee you in 96 mile power wind gusts, there's roof damage. You know, homes aren't destroyed, but there's going to be a lot of repairs throughout some

of these small coastal cities in southern Louisiana. So when we're talking New Orleans, we want to, the question is, will New Orleans go through the eye wall? Will it go through this outer northeast eye where the really strong winds are? It's only 27 miles away, and it's roughly heading due north. It's going to be a close call for downtown New Orleans. West New Orleans, you're definitely going to go through it along I-10 to Laplace. You're now 100% going to get some of the strongest winds with this.

You're only 20 miles from that northern band. And our friends in Baton Rouge, it'll weaken as it gets to you, but you're still going to go through it. It's 40 miles away right now. So that's roughly about three hours from now. Baton Rouge will see its highest wins. And we already have almost 100,000 people without power already in Louisiana. And the storm hasn't even reached the high population centers. There's that 53-mile-fower gust in New Orleans.

Orleans and Rose Gonzalez is at 44, Bantan Rouge at 39, and all locations on I-10 there are about to go through the strongest portion of the storm. Of course, the other thing, the rain is adding up. We do have flash flood warnings for at least four parishes here in southern Louisiana, and those will expand northwards with that northern half of the eye, which is still really well intact. We haven't had any reports of tornadoes. I haven't even seen any active tornado warnings in a while, but this tornado watch goes out to 11 p.m. It goes from New Iberia to Homa, it's in New Orleans. Beluxies included in this, too. And some storms are better at producing tornadoes than others. So far, we haven't seen a lot with this, Tom. But just for your, you know, Tom, I'd say about one hour from now till about, you know, then add another three to that. That's kind of the peak of the storm for you.

So I'm telling everyone in New Orleans, it's like the dinner hour till about maybe 10 or 11 p.m. That's when the peak of the storm is where you are. I'd say right now, Bill, we're getting the most rain we've gotten so far since we arrived here around 9 a.m. today. The wind by far is the strongest right now. I do want to ask you about Lake Pontchartrain just behind me. I'm going to ask our photographer, Dan, to zoom in there. You can see those big waves now crashing over the seawall.

Bill, how much of a concern is the storm surge? I ask because I've covered hurricanes here before, including Ida, which was a category for as much bigger storm. But that storm surge was already like all the way over here. It was already in the area of the land where the picnics are held and things like that. It doesn't seem too bad right now, but again, the hurricane's just rolling in. So Tom, if you notice the direction that the wind, so the wind is hitting you on your left shoulder and blowing towards your right. So that's the direction that the wind is traveling across Lake Pontentrain.

So, you know, Tom's located right here, and the wind is coming at him like this direction. So this is Lake Pontentrain right here, this outline. It's pushing all of that water to the north side of the lake and to the west side of the lake. So the water is going to be much higher on the north and west side. That's where the storm surge is going to take place. The water levels on the southern side, where Tom is, where New Orleans is. are actually going to be just fine. It's the north side of lake and the west side of Lake, Tom.

That's where they could see that four to six foot of storm surge because that gust that you're standing in is then going across the lake and just pushing that water all the way to the shore. Bill, before you go, I got one more question for you. As I walk over here to our other camera, on the ground here, you'll notice you've got all the loose palm fronds. These are palm fronds that are obviously dead.

They're easily ripped off in these types of winds. Do you think we're going to see structure damage Later on, because of these wins, it's a category one. Usually structures can withstand category ones, but sometimes they can't. What are you expecting? It's going to be a very close call. So right now we're predicting the highest wind gusts in about two to three hours from now in New Orleans, somewhere in the range of 75 miles per hour.

Now, if we have, you know, most structures are built for that. They'll be just fine. It's older structures we worry about and any dead trees and dead tree limbs. That's what you can't really prepare for if people haven't trimmed their properties, and that will come down. So that's why we get the power outages. Even if we're only going to see max winds in New Orleans of 75 miles per hour, you still can have issues. It will not be, Tom, this will not be weeks of recovery. This will be a couple days, and hopefully a lot of people will get their power back on. I hope you're right. All right, Bill Carrens, I know you're going

to stand by for us throughout this storm and throughout the broadcast. For more in the preparation for Hurricane Francine New Orleans, I want to bring in Colin Arnold. He's the director of New Orleans disaster response. And Colin, I know this has just started to pick up and get started here in New Orleans. Can you walk us through the preps and what you're watching tonight? Yeah, absolutely. We, you know, we started working on this over the weekend when we knew that this would be an issue. We've leaned forward. We've had infrastructure crews out there working, clearing storm drains, doing all the checklists that they need to do. On the human services side, we've set aside rec centers on standby in case we need, you know, emergency resource centers

post storm. This is a shelter in place storm. People have taken that seriously. I was just outside, you know, driving around a little bit doing some recon, and there's not a lot of people on the streets. A lot of places are closed, which is a good thing, and I appreciate that, that our residents. They know what they're doing. They're very resilient. We do have some shelter capacity for the unhoused and for some vulnerabilities that we've been out selectively working with our health department to find. And, you know, we're going to ride this out. I've been seeing Gus right now, and I'm totally in agreement with you, you know, about 55, 53 miles an hour from our own weather stations we've set up around the city. And so we're starting to see some power numbers. Power out just creep up.

We're at about 3,700 citywide now, and we're going to continue to monitor that. Colin, New Orleans has so many unique qualities to this great city, but it also has issues with infrastructure. And at times it's the levee, at times it's the pumps, at times it's the sewer system. We know Jefferson Parish right now is concerned about their sewer system. They're asking people to limit their water because they feel like the water that's coming in from the storm search may back up those pipes. What are you worried about in Orleans and the greater sort of southern Louisiana region? I think we're in a good position right now with our drainage system. You know, the pumps, we've got 90 of 99 that are operational and ready to go.

We've got a power supply that I haven't seen in probably four years, the amount of power that we can generate ourselves. we can generate ourselves. So we're happy with that. But I would agree that our vulnerability at this point, particularly post-storm with there's power outages, is going to be the sewer lift stations, particularly as you get further away from the downtown area. And so we've done a lot to address that because it was an issue during Hurricane Ida. And so it will all be about deploying generators, transportable generators out to a lot of those lift stations very quickly after the storm. And that's what we plan to do with our sewerage and waterboard. All right, Colin, we thank you for your time. I'm sure we're going to check back with you

if there are any issues happening in the Greater Orleans Parish or throughout New Orleans as well. But again, we thank you for your time. Over in bad region, the capital, bracing for, yeah, thank you. Bracing for damaging winds, the city's population of more than 200,000 order to take cover as Hurricane Francine pushes in. And so right now, for more on what's happening Baton Rouge. I'm joined by my colleague Kathy Park, who's there live tonight in Baton Rouge. Kathy, talk to me about the conditions you're seeing there right now. Tom, I can tell you in the past hour, the conditions have deteriorated very quickly. We are getting smack with these heavy bands of rain.

The wind, as you can see, probably behind me with these trees whipping around. The winds have really picked up. But I think I caught Bill Karen saying that the peak wind gusts are supposed to happen sometime within the next two to three hours. So this is just a taste of what's to come. So this is downtown Baton Rouge right now, and if you look around, it's pretty much a ghost town. All these businesses, shops have been pretty much closed all day. We haven't seen a lot of activity on the roadway, which is a good thing because it sounds like, or it seems like, residents are heating the warnings. And the governor has encouraged people to hunger and place right out the storm.

But even after the storm passes, he is encouraging people to stay put because he wants the emergency responders to have plenty of time to respond to the rescues that they may have to go to. Also, the utility crews to begin their repairs as well. I do want to point out something, Tom, that we thought was interesting, that rolled in not too long ago. This gray vehicle, this is a federal van that pulled in. It's filled with emergency vehicles, and we are told that they are working with state as well as local agency to mobilize as needed. And they'll be monitoring Francine as closely as possible, and will be utilizing the resources inside this vehicle. as needed. Here in Baton Rouge, we heard from the mayor earlier today. She says that they have really prepared in advance of this storm, by clearing out the drains, pulled out 30 tons of debris.

So she feels pretty confident that the infrastructure here in Baton Rouge can handle the floodwaters. Tom? Yeah, Kathy, as I'm talking and looking at your live shot, we have a second camera over here in New Orleans next to me that's shooting some of Lake Pontchartrain. If we can take that shot as well. It is two completely different stories right now. Just so you know, New Orleans is east of Baton Rouge, right? A little south as well. But we're really getting pounded right now. I mean, the wind, the rain, it is coming really, really hard. And it looks like this direct hit, whether it be a category two or category one that the storm now is. It's going to do some damage to New Orleans and at least give New Orleans a run for its money possibly. It looks

like Baton Rouge may be spared, but I know it's still early in the night. Kathy, were people there taking the storm seriously before the situation started to get worse? Yeah, Tom, believe it or not, a lot of folks we spoke with yesterday, we were at a sandbagging location not too far from here, and they kept bringing up 2016. The summer of 2016, there was a system that stalled for several days. Hearts of Baton Rouge got 20 inches of rain, so flooding was a big deal, and a lot of people had problems for days, if not weeks. So they didn't want a repeat of that, obviously.

So preparation was key, and we saw a lot of folks getting ahead of the storm, doing the grocery runs, packing those sandbags, and preparing their homes for Francine. Tom. All right, Kathy Park, please stay safe there in Baton Rouge. I now want to go to Homa, located in Terrebonne Parish, where Hurricane Francine made landfall as a Category 2 storm. I want to bring in Fletcher Mackle, a friend of mine. He's a reporter for NBC News, I should say, New Orleans NBC affiliate station here, WDSU, a powerhouse station. here in the Big Easy. So Fletcher, walk me through what you've been seen there. I saw some reports that Homa has lost power.

I don't know if it's been restored just yet. No, Tom, we have no power here. I'd say that what you're experiencing in New Orleans right now is what we got about one hour ago. We're about 50 miles south of New Orleans. And for people watching right now, this is the Bayou region of South Louisiana. It's an area that is flood-prone that still has some fresh scar tissue from Hurricane Ida three years ago.

They took a massive punch from that storm, and now they are in storm prep mode again in dealing with a category two hurricane right now. About an hour ago, we were dealing with those windburst that I heard your team talking about about 20 miles an hour in New Orleans. The gust here far stronger than that, closer to the coast and the Gulf of Mexico. The rain has subsided right now because it is moving towards you. in the greater New Orleans area, but we are expecting more bands right on cue, as I say, no rain coming through right now. Still no power. Last check, almost 10,000 people here in Terrebonne Parish without power.

So we are waiting for more feeder bands to affect us because the eye is so wide, we got a little bit of a break after what you're dealing with right now when New Orleans came through. But it certainly feels like the conditions are deteriorating just a little bit more right now here in Homa after that first wave about 60 minutes ago. Fletcher, you know, I know you've covered a lot of hurricanes and you grew up in this area as well. Can you put this storm sort of into context? I know we're just getting started. But so far, have you gotten a taste, if you will, for Hurricane Francine?

And what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, that's a great question. And look, I know you are very familiar with New Orleans and have strong ties to New Orleans and have been to New Orleans a ton. This is a real hurricane, obviously a category two, is something everybody has to take seriously. And it really did pop up in the last few days, not giving people a chance to evacuate. Everybody had to shelter in place and stay safe. Some of the people here had to evacuate in the lower-lying areas of the parish.

But this is mostly something that people have to ride out here, and that is not what we are used to. I think it's because this storm came from the west off the coast of Texas, and this area hasn't been hit by storm coming from the west. Most of them come from the tip of Florida and up through the Gulf of Mexico. Far more chance to prepare, evacuate, and get ready. This one popped up off the coast of Texas. It's the first storm they hit this area. In almost 40 years, it's Hurricane 1 in this direction. But to try to put it in context, look, I cover Hurricane Katrina in my lifetime. I hope I never cover anything like that again. Idol was next up, and that was three years ago. I would put this one just for context that hurricane people and storm people out there.

around Gustav, Isaac, 2008, 2012. This is a rain and wind event, but hopefully it's going to pass through without leaving a massive wake of destruction behind. Fletcher Mackle from WDSU, again, a powerhouse station here in New Orleans. Fletcher, you and your team, please stay safe.

I'm glad you've sort of seen the worst of Hurricane Francine where you are there in Homa. Back here in New Orleans, things are getting worse by the minute as we've been reporting throughout top story tonight. I wanted to come back out here to show you that the wind is picking up, the rain's picking up. But the thing that really caught our eye are these big waves from Lake Pontchartrain that are crashing over the sea wall right now.

Again, the storm surge is something we're watching. A bit of good news that the water has not completely overtaken the seawall. It's not on the roadway just yet. But again, we're just getting started here. And we're just getting started on Top Story. We're going to have much more on Hurricane Francine, as well as the wildfires that have exploded out west, plus the latest on the political scene. huge debate that happened last night and the fallout today. Stay with the special edition

of Top Story. We're going to be right back. And welcome back to the special edition of Top Story live in New Orleans tonight as we continue to cover Hurricane Francine. We've come in from the elements for a moment to cover some other news right now. including that other natural disaster we've been following. Multiple wildfires continue to rage out west, exploding in size overnight. The flames forcing evacuations and burning homes to the ground. And a suspect arrested today for allegedly starting one of those fires.

NBC's Dana Griffin is on the ground covering it all for us. In Southern California, the race to escape. A barefoot woman narrowly rescued by a fire crew as flames surround her. Erratic winds fanned the bridge fire overnight. burning across two counties destroying at least 39 homes this woman and her cat helped his safety near Wrightwood California the hardest hit area here the fire has come down the hill it is now burning along the roadway jumping over to this side of the street where you can see trees are now on fire hollowing them out this will likely fall on the road

and block it how do you wrap your head around all of this you don't not yet Chuck Lyons' dream home is now unrecognizable, but he knows every inch. That's our basement. This was our living room. As fires rage, 34-year-old Justin Halstonberg has been arrested for arson, accused of starting the line fire, burning now for nearly a week in San Bernardino County. His family declined to talk. And the sheriff there says two people have been arrested for allegedly trying to burglarize evacuated homes in the fire zone. If you're going to be an opportunist in San Bernardino County, and we catch you, you are going to jail.

Air quality has plummeted as winds push smoke into Las Vegas. But as homes fall to the fires forward march, some vowed to stop it any way they can. I built that damn house right there. It's not mine, but I'm not going to let it burn. Dana Griffin, NBC News, Rightwood, California. All right, we thank Dana for that, and we are live tonight in New Orleans

as our special coverage of Hurricane Francine continues. Parts of Mississippi and high alert as the storm lashes the region. Our Stephen Romo is live with the current conditions next. And it was one of the wildest moments of the debate former President Trump repeating baseless claims about migrants eating pets. So we head to Springfield, Ohio, to debunk those rumors.

You'll see what we found out. Stay with us. And welcome back to our live coverage here in New Orleans of Hurricane France. seen, as we've been saying over the last 30 minutes or so, the conditions in the greater New Orleans area are getting worse. It came ashore, it's a category two. It is now a category one, which is somewhat good news for the city of New Orleans and the greater areas that surround here. The problem is that it's still a hurricane. And you can see some of the storm search we've

been talking about from Lake Pontchartrain. The waves now coming over the sea wall, and they're slowly creeping up on the roadway that surrounds the Lakeview area. This is where people come to drive and see beautiful Lake Pontchartrain. Tonight, obviously, way too dangerous for that right now. Over the next 30 minutes, we're going to be watching the conditions here. We think this is when the storm will be the most intense for New Orleans and the areas headed towards Mississippi. And that's where we want to go right now to Gulfport, Mississippi.

And Steve Romo, who's on the beach there, Steve, it looks like a pretty beautiful shot where you are, but I think you know what's headed for you. What are they telling you down there in Mississippi? Yeah, things are really picking up here right now, Tom. We had a little bit of a break from the rain, but we are definitely feeling one of those dams right now. Winds picking up as well, and low tide was only a couple hours ago, but the water has actually moved much closer to us than it was at this same time yesterday. A lot of people we're talking to are very concerned about that storm surge, which they have been warned about. Conditions are continuing to deteriorate here right now.

People also getting those sandbags, putting them up in their homes and businesses trying to keep out the water. they keep pointing to Katrina as the storm of reference. And we've seen just how high those watermarks are from that storm. A lot of people who live through that aren't as worried about that. People who did not live through that, they are very concerned about what they're seeing right now, Tom. Yeah, it is dangerous no matter what happens there, whether it's a hurricane or a tropical storm by the time it gets to you there. Steve, just your sense, people taking this storm seriously? Oh, yeah, they definitely are.

There's a curfew that's been established at 6 p.m. local time through 6 a.m. local time. And we have not seen anyone on this beach. A lot of times on beaches, you know, people will go out to try to surf or see what's going on. That is not happening here. People are doing what authorities are saying and staying home for the most part, Tom. All right. Steve Romo for us. As we continue to cover Hurricane Francine here in New Orleans, we just got an update right now. We're still under tornado watch.

And we are also just getting a flash flood warning as well. So we want to update our viewers on that. We're going to turn, though, now for a moment to power in politics because so many people still talking about that debate from last night, Vice President Harris rattling former President Trump at their first ever debate. And shortly after last night's debate, Taylor Swift, announcing her support for Vice President Harris on Instagram to her 280 million followers. NBC's Peter Alexander has all the latest from the campaign trail post debate.

At Ground Zero today, Vice President Harris and former President Trump shaking hands again. Both appearing at the solemn ceremony commemorating the 23rd anniversary of the 9-11 terror attack and the nearly 3,000 Americans who lost their lives. Jack, Charles Aaron. Joshua Todd Aaron. Later, in a show of unity, President Biden briefly wearing a Trump hat handed to him by a supporter of the former president. It comes as the Harris campaign is touting her performance at last night's debate, calling for a second one. The former president who had insisted on multiple debates, now non-committal.

Are we going to do a rematch? I just don't know. I would do NBC. I'd do Fox, too. It follows their historic face-off, the first ever meeting between the two, that began with an unexpected greeting initiated by the vice president. Kamala Harris. Is that a good debate? But the pleasantries did not last long. This is so rich coming from someone who has been prosecuted. I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me. For 90 minutes, Harris delivered on her strategy to try to provoke outbursts from the former president, mocking his rallies. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.

Trump repeatedly taking the bait. She said people start leaving. People don't go to her rallies. There's no reason to go. Harris pressing her rival on his refusal to accept the 2020 election results. Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people. Clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that. And in another dramatic moment, slamming him for praising the repeal of Roe v. Wade. You want to talk about this is what people wanted. Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term suffering from a miscarriage,

being denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they might go to jail and she's bleeding out in a car in the parking lot. She didn't want that. Though Harris did not specify if she supports any restrictions on abortion. Trump targeted Harris for her record on the economy. I've never seen a worse period of time. People can't go out of buy cereal or bacon or eggs or anything else. And on the border.

They've destroyed the fabric of our country. Millions of people let in. Also going after her recent reversals on progressive policies like fracking ban that she has since said she opposes. She will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania. If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on day one. The vice president closing the debate on an optimistic note. We can chart a new way forward.

And a vision of that includes having a plan, understanding the aspirations, the dreams, the hopes, the ambition of the American people. Trump argued Harris is all talk and no action. They've had three and a half years to fix the border. They've had three and a half years to create jobs and all the things we talked about. Why hasn't she done it? So where do things stand tonight on a second debate? We've spoken to Trump allies who say they're going to urge Mr. Trump to do another

because he allowed Harris to get under his skin last evening. And we have just learned that more than 67 million people watched last night's showdown. A lot of Americans tuning in. All right, Peter Alexander, we thank you. One of the most shocking moments at last night's debate was an unproven claim by former President Trump about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. NBC's Yamish Al Sundar has a report from there tonight. Have good debate. Thank you.

Tonight, growing fallout over one of the most talked about moments of the debate. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. Former President Trump's spreading unfounded claims that members of the growing Haitian population in Springfield, Ohio, are abusing pets. City officials say there's no evidence of that. Mr. Trump's running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, first spread the baseless accusations on social media earlier this week.

When I questioned him about it in the debate spin room, he doubled down. Senator Vance, what do you say to Haitian Americans and Haitian immigrants who say spreading false claims about them put their lives at risk? Well, I don't think that no one has spread false claims. What they've said is that a small migrant community has caused a lot of problems. Springfield City Manager said there's no evidence that immigrants are eating animals. That just means the city manager, I think, isn't fully in touch with what's going on in the ground there. City officials say the rumors may have begun with an unrelated case in another part of Ohio,

where a U.S. citizen was arrested for a gruesome incident involving a county. On the ground in Springfield, we found. deep tensions. It's just to me discrimination and xenophobia and bigotry and racism. V. Les Dorseville runs a community center for Haitians. They just believe that their words have no impact and it's not true. So immigrants in Springfield, especially Haitians, they are so concerned for their lives and the lives of their kids.

In the last few years, officials say as many as 15,000 Haitians legally in the U.S. have moved to the city, which had about 60,000 residents before. City leaders had advertised, newly created manufacturing jobs and Springfield's affordability. But some like Bill Monaghan say Springfield suffered from the change. Oh, it's been disastrous. What's your response to Haitian immigrants who say they're coming here to revitalize Springfield? That's not what's happening for Springfield. I mean, it might happen for them, it might happen for the, you know, the landlords that are

enriching themselves, the city manager who's trying to pat his budget. In a city meeting last night, the parents of 11-year-old Aidan Clark spoke. Aiden was killed in the school bus crash last year. After a jury found a Haitian immigrant guilty of vehicular homicide, tensions escalated. I said to Aiden that I would try to make a difference in his honor. This is it. Tonight, they're urging politicians and others to stop using their son's death to spread hate. You know that one of the worst feelings in the world is to not be able to protect your child.

Even worse, we can't even protect his memory when he's gone. Please stop the hate. And with that, Yamiche joins us now live from Springfield tonight. Yamish, first of all, we thank you for going down there and trying to get to the bottom of all of this. My first question to you, is Springfield aware that they are now the talk of the nation because of the debate and because of these controversies and these conspiracy theories that have been spread online? They're certainly aware. On the ground, really, the tension is palpable here. here. You have residents that are buying into these baseless claims that there are Haitians

who are trying to abuse animals. Some saying that they've heard secondhand of animals going missing. And then you have this new Haitian population that is really heartbroken. I just talked to a 20-year-old man. He's been here just a few months. He came here to get a construction job. He's here legally. But he said now that he's re-traumatized and more traumatized because he's fleeing Haiti, fled Haiti because of gang violence and insecurity. And now he feels insufficiency. secure and unsafe here on the streets of Springfield because some of his co-workers are asking him, do you eat cats? And that's really heartbreaking for him. So he's really trying to assimilate and really get into the culture and really embrace Springfield. But now he's worried that he might

have to leave. Tom? And then, Yamish, do you think that what's happening in Springfield is sort of what's happening in other parts of America, Ritz Mall, essentially immigration, dividing a community? This is certainly a microcosm of a larger immigration debate, and I've seen it play out in different places. We're, of course, both from Miami. I remember back in the 1970s, there was a real divide there when Haitian immigrants were coming in with people saying some of the same things, saying that they were eating cats, saying falsely that they were spreading HIV. That's another reason why this is so painful, because Haitians have seen this over and over again in Miami, in New York, in Boston.

And, of course, other immigrant populations have seen this as well. in Miami and others have been targeted with conspiracy theories, and some would say lies, and someone would say racist conspiracy theories. So this is really part of a bigger debate, but of course, as the election goes on, we can expect to see even more immigration issues and more topics. And this debate just get louder and louder. As of course, former President Trump and Vice President Harris are going to continue to talk about this issue, Tom.

Yamish, before you go, some Republicans that I've spoken to say this issue is really actually not even about the Haitians. It's about corporations hiring the. those immigrants. It's about local government welcoming them in. Did you hear a frustration from those Springfield residents about either their local government or about the factory that has hired all these immigrants to come in and help out with their products? I did. I talked to one man who is running a social media page who talked about the fact that he really blames the city for not having the resources needed to really properly integrate a lot of the Haitian people

that are coming here. He really wants to see more resources, wants to make sure that. that there's not a sort of housing crunch here where you have immigrants who maybe can live with multiple generations in a family that they think are pushing out sort of long-time residents. So there definitely is that tension here. But Haitian Americans still say that they really came here to

embedder the community and revitalize this community because, of course, they were advertised to come here. So a real tension there, Tom. Yamish, Alcindar, live in Springfield for us tonight. Yamish, we appreciate all of your reporting. Coming up, we're going to have much more on Hurricane Francine from here in New Orleans. The Cat 2 storm lashing parts of Louisiana. Bill Cairns joins us live for an

updated track next. Plus, what city officials are telling residents in the storm's path. Stay with us. Welcome back to our special coverage of Top Story and of Hurricane Francine right here in New Orleans. We are live tonight, and the storm, the hurricane, Category 1, is pounding the Big Easy right now. I would say right now, conditions are the worst they have been all night. The rain is endless. The wind is as strong as it's been. And over here, the storm surge from Lake Contrains, the waves now crashing over the seawall and hitting the sidewalk, rolling into the street right next to it as well. Phil Carins, you know, I always enjoy having you tell me what's happening here with your radars and all the graphics. So what's happening over the Big Easy right now where I'm standing?

Tom, you've just entered that like three-hour period, right? I expect New Orleans to be in the worst of it. So this is the beginning of it. It's that you're watching. three hours from now, you'll probably get into the clear and everything will head north across the lake. So the worst conditions to be out in is now as far as danger from flying objects, tree branches coming down, the heavy rain. We're getting a heavy rain event right now and it's going to continue that way in New Orleans. We've already picked up three inches of rain at the airport in New Orleans. You can pick up another three inches in the next two hours. So that's going to really test the pumps in the New Orleans area. You are under a flash flood warning. Obviously, because of the heavy.

rain that's happening and that has already occurred in the area, Tom. And those wind gusts are just going to continue to increase. We've already seen a gust at the airport up to 59 miles per hour. Just from looking at you, you're in sustained winds, I'd guess, around 30 to about 45 miles per hour, some gusts 50 to 60. You could see a gust up to 75 miles per hour. So you're in the conditions what you'd expect for a strong tropical storm. And that's pretty much what's in the forecast for the New Orleans area. Again, we have now over about almost 150,000 people without power in Louisiana, and that number is going to jump because those strong winds are over highly populated areas. Bill, what can the rest of the Gulf region, you know, moving east of New Orleans expect over the next

couple of hours and days as this storm moves through the country? Yeah, so for tonight, areas from New Orleans east are not going to see it that bad. As long as we avoid those tornadoes, we're not going to get hit as hard. So there's New Orleans here. It's this. band from New Orleans along I-10 to Laplace, who's also now under a flash flow morning, up to Baton Rouge. This is the area that's going to be in the worst event as we go throughout the next couple hours. The storm is weakening, but at the same time moving over the highly populated region here. That's why a lot of power outages will be occurring shortly. So here's this, we're still getting very intense rainfall rates, and this is where the heaviest is.

Laplace is probably going to have significant damage in about an hour from now. It's just beginning. This heavy band is only 15 miles from New Orleans. from Laplace. We're talking about 12 miles away. Baton Rouge, you still have a while. We're hoping that the storm weakens enough by the time it gets to you that you don't have excessive power outages. Here's the new wind update. You can see Baton Rouge now in the 40s, Gonzales at 52. The latest gusts at New Orleans at the international is at 55. I know at the lakefront airport, you've been gusting right around 60 miles per hour. But the other thing to notice,

there's no backside to this storm. So once the eye gets to you, it's barely going to rain anymore. It'll just be drizzle and breezy. So you just have to get through this portion of the storm. It's about a three-hour period of intense rain, wind, you know, the chance of flash flooding. That's what's happening now in New Orleans and a long I-10 and eventually up to Baton Rouge. By the time we get to midnight, it'll shift northwards up here into northern Louisiana, Tom. So this is it for New Orleans. If you can somehow keep power in the next three hours, then you likely should have it through the rest of the night.

Bill, you know, as we look at the radars, we should also look at the calendar, right? Yesterday was the peak of hurricane season for 2024. What more can we expect and can we draw any conclusions from what we've seen in the first half so far? Yeah, so now we're dealing already with our third landfall in hurricane, which is pretty unusual. But a lot of them, none of them have been major devastating storms, storms that are going to go in the history books. A lot of them are storms like we're dealing with tonight. You know, hundreds of thousands will lose power. but that should get recovered.

And we're not watching lives destroyed, which is great news. As we go in advance that through the rest of the season, we do have one area of interest off the coast of South Carolina. That easily could be a subtropical or tropical system this weekend, but that does not have to be a devastating storm. Tom, we have to get through six weeks. My kind of rule of thumb is once you get through the middle of October, it's pretty rare to have a big devastating storm.

So six weeks to go is a long time. We're not out of the woods yet. All right, Bill Karras, thank you for all of your expertise tonight throughout this broadcast. I want to go to Jefferson Parish now, which is sort of the suburbs of New Orleans, if you will, a mandatory evacuation issued for residents and those who stayed behind in low-line areas. Authorities asking them to conserve water to avoid sewage backups. Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee-Shang joins me now, live on Top Story. President Lee, thank you so much for joining us, first of all.

How is Jefferson Parish doing right now? We're probably seeing the worst of it right now, I think. I think the inner eyewall is kind of approaching us. So I think, as you said, we're seeing kind of what you're seeing there on the screen. Yes. What concerns do you have going into tonight, as it's obviously getting much darker and much later? Well, we've already known that we've had probably 11,000 people have lost electricity. And a lot of the calls that we're getting, and it's just sort of an example of you never know what these storms bring.

You never know if it's going to be a flooding issue, if it's going to be down. trees. Believe it or not, the big calls that we're getting are people are not able to flush their toilets. So what we're seeing is our sewer system being inundated with groundwater and stormwater, and it's being overwhelmed. And that's, like I say, every storm is different. This is not, you know, exactly what we expected with this storm, but you never can predict what will happen. And that's what we're getting in. So as soon as we can get out there, we have some emergency contracts to get out there and get out the vacuum trucks and get out to make sure that we don't have backup in people's homes. But that's sort of the main thing that our citizens are dealing with

right now. Our coastal community, we're really very lucky that part of that, you know, storm seems to have dropped off, and that really kind of saves us for the lower-lying areas of Jefferson Parish, which is Grand Island Lafitte, which is our coastal area. So we were really pleased to see kind of the storm formation the way that happened for us. That really helped us a lot. Flash flooding concerns right now throughout southern Louisiana, including Orleans Parish and Jefferson Parish, where you are. Any concerns on flash flooding? And I know we're also keeping our eye on any possible tornadoes. Right. Certainly, we're always concerned with flooding. And what is unique here for us is that we have open canals. And when you have open canals that

are high next to flooded roads, that becomes a very, very dangerous situation where people don't really know where the canal starts and the road ends. And so we're really stressing to our citizens to stay put, you know, as the storm passes in the next couple hours, please don't go out. Please let us get out and make sure the roads are safe. Our public works crews are ready to be out there. But, you know, we always say the hazards post-storm are almost worse than the hazards during the storm. And, you know, with Ida, we actually lost more people post-Ida than we did during the storm of Ida. So that's, you know, something, the message that I've really been trying to stress for our citizens today. Stay put. Give us the time to make our community safe

again. Give us the time to clear the streets. Make sure there's no down power lines. There's so many different hazards post storm. We're just asking our citizens to sit tight and give us the time to make our community safe again. Yeah, I was here covering Hurricane Irman. I know the story from from that hurricane was the power outages, right? Of great towns like Harahan, River Ridge, losing their power for so many weeks. In some cases, almost a month. I can't remember exactly, but I remember it was a very long time when those giant power towers came down over the Mississippi River. Have you been able to talk to Entergy tonight? Do you know what the power outage situation is right now in your parish?

We have power outages throughout the parish. As I said, as of last check, we had over 11,000 throughout the parish, and that's, we're just one parish in the greater New Orleans region. But you bring up the power outages and people down here in the south because of the storms, they have purchased generators. And talking about, We lost people after the storm, three people, due to carbon monoxide poisoning. So, again, these are the hazards post-storm that you wouldn't, not a direct result of the storm, but certainly a storm-related death that we had. And so, again, our message today is be careful of all these other hazards that the storm brings,

in addition to the obvious ones like the flooding and the storm surge and the, and, you know, the heavy winds. Is these other very real hazards we have? Finally, President, your last warning to all the residents there in Jefferson Parish for tonight. Just again, stay put while you can. We will, even when the storm clears, I know everybody's kind of got cabin fever. They've been in for a while as we've prepared for the storm. Please give us the time to make the streets safe again, and we don't want, you know, maybe there's traffic signals that aren't down.

So the last thing we need is traffic accidents post-storm and causing more injuries. So stay put, give us time. Our teams are ready to get out there. We have a couple hundred people ready to get out there when the storm passes. All right, President Lee Shen, we thank you so much for your time, and we hope everyone listens to those warnings. They heed those warnings as well. We're going to stay covering Hurricane Francine out here in New Orleans.

Our coverage continues on Stay tuned right with Doddy Schwartz right after this. We're going to be live out here as this category now, one storm slams into New Orleans. It's going to be a very long night for the Big Easy, and we'll be here every minute of the way. You're watching Top Story, a special edition, and News Now. Stay right there. More news on the way.