>> on. right new as we speak, i'm here and i see a number of people around me, can you imagine having planned your family vacation at the end of summer and you have to decide whether you rideout the storm and hotel or if you are one of the many who attempt to get out of new orleans or this area today. in fact we noted at the top of this hour united airlines says it is halting flights as of midnight tonight out of new orleans and there was no shortage of people attempting to leave from that airport when we entered a short time ago. let me bring under another parish president , many of you may have recognized the name, he talked a lot about the gulf oil spill when that disaster happened. there is a mandatory evacuation for the parish where he is president. billy , thank you for your time yet again. we are dealing with awful historic oil spill and the devastation it caused and now we are watching tropical storm isaac . what are you telling folks in your parish ?
>> we are telling them to get out. based on the storm surge projections, above the levy in those areas, we are see more above the leavies on both side of the river. our pair sirish is about 60 miles from the gulf. people are heading up the highway now, loading campers, boats, getting out and it is a good warning to talk because in the middle of the parish where we have the low levies, we will see this highway possibly go under water.
>> you're saying people are getting out -- i have not had a chance to survey a lot of freeways coming straight from the airport to this location. the scene where cars are backed up and lines at gas stations in our area?
>> absolutely. starting at 5:00 this morning, i was on the road and there were lines at gas stations in our parish . of course the main city of new orleans is not evacuating. through the city and out the i-10, it is not like it would be for a major evacuation. but in our parish , there is one road in and one road out and it is steady traffic flowing out the parish as we speak.
>> billy , let me ask you, and jefferson parish , impact seven years to the day, this storm isaac could roll through your community as category 1 even as experts are telling us possibly category 2. what are your thoughts on this right now? what are your words to the people listening in your community?
>> yeah, i didn't close an eye last night and i got calls all night from people that say, could this be another katrina ? and obviously, the size of the storm, it could have been. had it begun picking up speed right off of florida, we could have seen that. but people, like i, did not want it go to bed last night and wake up this morning and say, it strengthens, and now we're getting hit with a major blow. we were lucky, it didn't gain that kind of speed. it still has potential to do damage but nothing like katrina . and we are thankful for that. but because of the anniversary and because clackamas pair irn was first hit by katrina , people were on edge and continue to stay on edge.
>> right. billy , one of the things folks in this region admire about you is that you are a straight shooter . i talked to the army corps of engineers . they have great confidence and i have walked along where the levy was breached in this area. it looks very different than what it was prior to katrina . they walked me through the pump systems here. all of the billions of dollars put in place here. as i started this sentence saying you're a straight shooter , what do you say? tell me straight. do you have confidence in the engineers and in fema as well?
>> absolutely. er with evacuating east bay but where the levies finished in the north end of our parish ,er with bringing our -- we are evacuating people to a shelter in bell chase. it is now behind a hundred year protection, behind core levees. normally we would evacuation people three hours away to north louisiana . but we are bringing citizens to the north end of the parish where the levies are finished. we have over a billion dollars yet to be spent to build a levy. if those were finished, we would not be evacuating at this time. so yes, they have done a good job. a lot is yet to be done. but we feel a lot better today than we did before katrina .
>> billy nungesser, thank you so much for your time, billy . we will be taked out here for hours and days to come to bring you the latest on this tropical storm isaac as it has new orleans in its crosshairs.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/48804237/
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