Deaths prompt Louisiana senior living investigation

NEW ORLEANS — Officials in New Orleans plan to thoroughly inspect senior living apartments in the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida after finding people living in buildings without working generators, which left residents trapped in wheelchairs on dark, sweltering upper floors, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Monday.

Hundreds were evacuated Saturday and the city later said five people had died in the privately run buildings in the days after the storm. The coroner’s office is investigating whether the deaths will be attributed to the hurricane, which struck land nine days before.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden approved major disaster declarations Monday greenlighting federal aid for people in six New Jersey counties and five New York counties affected by devastating flooding from the remnants of Ida.

In New Orleans, the managers of some of the homes for seniors evacuated out of state without making sure the residents would be safe after the storm, City Council member Kristin Palmer said at a news conference.

“They’re hiding under the loophole of ‘independent living,’” Palmer said. “It’s not independent living if there’s no power and you’re in a wheelchair on the fourth floor.”

The city is creating teams of workers from the health, safety and permits, code enforcement and other departments. Their first focus is to make sure the senior homes are safe and evacuate people if necessary, Cantrell said.

But after that, management will be held accountable, and the city is likely to add requirements that include facilities having emergency agreements in place with contractors who will make sure generator power is available at the sites, the mayor said.

Crews in Louisiana have restored power to nearly 70% of greater New Orleans and nearly all of Baton Rouge after Hurricane Ida, but outside those large cities, getting lights back on is a complex challenge that will last almost all of September, utility executives said Monday.

It’s going to take air boats to get into the swamps and marshes to string lines and repair the most remote of about 22,000 power poles that Ida blew down when it came ashore Aug. 29 as one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the U.S. mainland, Entergy Louisiana President and CEO Phillip May said.

More than 530,000 customers still don’t have power in Louisiana, just under half of the peak when Ida struck. In five parishes west and south of New Orleans, at least 98% of homes and businesses don’t have power, according to the state Public Service Commission.

“It’s going to be a rebuild, not a repair,” May said.

The struggles in rural Louisiana shouldn’t keep people from forgetting the “near miraculous” speed of the repairs in New Orleans, Entergy New Orleans President and CEO Deanna Rodriguez said.

“I am so proud of the team and I think it’s a fabulous good news story,” she said.

But things aren’t normal in New Orleans. An 8 p.m. curfew remains in effect and numerous roads are impassable. Pickup of large piles of debris that residents and businesses have been leaving on curbs will begin today, officials said.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said Monday that he’s taken steps to help ensure that the people doing the hard work of recovery have places to stay. He signed a proclamation ordering hotels and other places of lodging to give priority to first responders, health care workers and those working on disaster-related infrastructure repairs.

Ida killed at least 13 people in Louisiana, many of them in the storm’s aftermath. Its remnants also brought historic flooding, record rains and tornadoes from Virginia to Massachusetts, killing at least 50 more people.

NORTHEAST PRESIDENTIAL VISIT

Biden is scheduled to visit New Jersey and New York City today to survey the damage, the White House said. The storm killed at least 27 people in New Jersey and 13 in New York City.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, touring flood-damaged areas of Lambertville on Labor Day, said Biden’s major disaster declaration will allow individuals to receive assistance, including grants for temporary housing and home repairs and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses.

An emergency declaration issued last week enabled state, county and local governments to get reimbursed for disaster spending, Murphy said.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said an initial assessment found the storm damaged more than 1,200 homes and caused about $50 million in damage to public infrastructure and property. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said damage to city infrastructure was estimated at $35 million.

Murphy said he would be talking to Biden about adding more counties to the disaster declaration.

He joined state and local officials on a walking tour of Lambertville, passing homes with belongings piled outside as residents spent their Labor Day clearing flood debris, aided at one point by a bulldozer.

The disaster declaration could help people like Nick Cepparulo, who told Murphy that all his family’s first-floor possessions were washed away soon after they got in their car and raced for higher ground.

“We’ll be all right,” Cepparulo told reporters. “We need a little help getting there.”

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent part of the morning touring storm damage in Queens with Deanne Criswell, the former city emergency management chief who’s now administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

One resident greeted de Blasio with an arm on his shoulder and a quip about their flooded homes.

“Welcome to Woodside,” she said. “We have swimming pools in each house. So you can get your bathing suit on and take a dip with us.”