00:00Joining us now from New Orleans with a look at the impacts, and Bill, our storm here is causing some
00:06trouble.
00:06You've had some pretty good shots from the north side of the city near Lake Pontchartrain with that stiff onshore
00:12wind.
00:13So how are things behaving? Are you noticing much of a change in recent hours as the center of the
00:17storm closes in?
00:20Yeah, Jeff, we've noticed that the winds have started picking up a little bit, which is expected on the backside
00:25of the storm,
00:26and also more water. Lakeshore Drive here behind us near Lake Pontchartrain, it is shut off.
00:31Police have cleared out people who are out here trying to take photos, and I'm noticing the water creeping closer
00:36and closer this way.
00:37And again, this is coastal flooding. This is not from rain coming down from the sky.
00:42In fact, we haven't seen much rain at all today. This is all the force of burglages pushing the water,
00:48plus that onshore flow right up against this part of Lake Pontchartrain,
00:51and the water just spilling right over the seawall and the steps.
00:55Check out the video, and you can see what we're talking about.
00:58Earlier today, before police had this closed off, people were out here taking pictures and videos.
01:03Some kids were out here.
01:05I'll tell you, a big difference weather-wise, because just in the past day or two days,
01:09actually with the real field temperatures were sweltering above 105, 110 degrees when people were out shoveling sandbags.
01:16So the bit of good news is, at least temperature-wise, some relief from the storm, from the heat so
01:22many people have been dealing with in Louisiana.
01:23But again, now we're dealing with this coastal flooding.
01:26This isn't the only place dealing with this.
01:28Low-lying areas, homes near canals.
01:30We are seeing water going over streets.
01:32And people who live along the Gulf Coast say, yes, this is the second tropical impact that New Orleans is
01:39experiencing this year.
01:40They're curious to see how many more potential storms they might see this season.
01:48It'll be a slow year, right?
01:50We got the Super Nino and all that, but the Gulf, you never know.
01:54So it could get bad.
01:58Hopefully not terrible, but, you know, we might see something.
02:04Yeah, so again, that is the wild card, locals who have lived along the coast.
02:08Again, Steve, he's from Pensacola, but people who live here in New Orleans as well, they know how the Gulf
02:13acts, Jeff.
02:14They know that water temperatures in the Gulf are several degrees higher in parts than the historical average for this
02:20time of year.
02:21So, again, we know that El Nino is a big part of the conversation when it comes to the hurricane
02:26season and that, yes, the overall number of storms in the Atlantic Basin may be lower compared to the historical
02:32average.
02:32But Arthur and Bertha, once again, just showing that, you know, we still could see storms.
02:37We are still dealing with impacts.
02:39It does not take a major hurricane to always cause problems here for the second time in a row.
02:45It's a tropical storm causing some headaches and flooding issues here in the New Orleans area.
02:51All right, Aki with our correspondent, Bill Waddell.
02:53Bill, thanks so much for your reports.
02:54We'll check back in with you in a bit.
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