STORM LEAVES LA. IN TATTERS
1M+ powerless & 2 dead, with toll set to rise
Hurricane Ida left a trail of destruction in its wake after slamming into Louisiana, leaving more than 1 million customers without power and killing at least two people — and the casualties are expected to mount as a massive search-and-rescue operation got underway on Monday.
Officials said it could be weeks before all power is restored to the region, after winds of up to 150 mph battered the state on Sunday and flash floods trapped thousands of residents, forcing Gov. John Bel Edwards to deploy more than 5,000 National Guard troops.
“I will leave it here: I am certain that as the day goes on we will have more deaths,” Edwards told NBC’s “Today” show. “We’re going to be getting information throughout the day that I fully expect that the confirmed death total to go up considerably.”
Ida weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall and was listed as a tropical depression late Monday as it moved through Mississippi and Alabama, still packing heavy rains and flooding.
Officials said the storm hit with such force that it briefly reversed the flow of the Mississippi River.
Edwards said a “robust” search for survivors was launched at around 3 a.m. on Monday with “hundreds and hundreds” of first responders, 195 high-water vehicles, 73 boats and 34 aircraft.
He said the effort was hampered by fallen trees and wires.
The two confirmed fatalities were a 60-year-old man who was crushed when a tree fell on his car on Sunday and an unidentified man who drowned while attempting to drive across a flooded area on Monday, according to the state’s Health Department.
Meanwhile, police said there were “numerous” reports of looting in New Orleans, prompting cops to launch teams across the city to thwart plundering of shuttered businesses.
“This will not be tolerated,” Police Chief Shaun Ferguson told Fox News. “We have made those arrests. This is a state felony, and we will be booking you accordingly.
“This is not the time to take opportunities of our vulnerable population right now. We all are vulnerable at this point in time.”
Ida also hit Louisiana’s hospitals hard, compounding the state’s COVID-19 crisis that has health care facilities at capacity.
Ochsner Health, the state’s largest hospital system, said more than 160 patients were being moved on Monday as generators failed after the storm ripped off roofs and flooded several facilities, NOLA.com reported.
Other hospitals reported “significant damage” from the storm, while some said they were running low on backup power on Monday.
“I hate to say it this way, but we have a lot of people on ventilators today, and they don’t work without electricity,” Edwards said.
Louisiana has been among the states hardest hit by the spread of the coronavirus’ Delta variant.
According to the Louisiana Health Department, the state has 2,684 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, with the pandemic totals reaching more than 12,000 deaths and nearly 380,000 confirmed cases.
“This storm packed a really powerful punch,” Edwards said. “We’re going to be responding to this hurricane for quite a while, and then we’re going to be recovering from it for months.”
Ida hit Louisiana 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina leveled the state, killing more than 1,800 people and causing $125 billion dollars in damage.
Ida packed stronger winds than Katrina, but the 2005 storm was “more expansive,” experts told NBC News on Monday.
Katrina also caught New Orleans off guard, overflowing levees and flooding about 80 percent of the city.
Edwards said on Sunday that $14 billion had been invested in the state’s infrastructure since Katrina, and that levee damage from Ida was comparatively minimal.
Among the levees that were compromised by Ida was one in Alliance, about 20 miles southeast of New Orleans, which prompted officials to issue an evacuation order for residents in a Facebook post.