After swamping Gulf Coast, Zeta takes aim at Southeast
ATLANTA » At least six people were dead and millions were without power Thursday after Hurricane Zeta slammed into Louisiana and made a beeline across the South, leaving shattered buildings, thousands of downed trees and fresh anguish over a recordsetting hurricane season.
From the bayous of the Gulf Coast to Atlanta and beyond, Southerners used to dealing with dangerous weather were left to pick up the pieces just days before an election in which early voting continued despite the storm.
In Atlanta and New Orleans, drivers dodged trees in roads and navigated intersections without traffic signals. In Lakeshore, Miss., Ray Garcia returned to his home to find a shrimp boat washed up and resting against it.
“I don’t even know if insurance is going to pay for this,” Garcia said. “I don’t know what this boat has done.”
As many as 2.6 million homes and businesses lost power across seven states, but the lights were coming back on slowly. The sun came out, and temperatures cooled. But trees were still swaying as the storm’s remnants blew through.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said the state sustained “catastrophic” damage on Grand Isle in Jefferson Parish, where Zeta punched three breaches in the levee. Edwards ordered the Louisiana National Guard to fly in soldiers to assist with rescue efforts and urged continued caution.
“Oddly enough, it isn’t the storms that typically produce the most injuries and the fatalities. It’s the cleanup efforts. It’s the use of generators. It’s the carbon monoxide poisoning. It’s the electrocution that comes from power lines,” Edwards said.
A Category 2 hurricane when it hit Louisiana on Wednesday, Zeta weakened to a post- tropical storm by Thursday afternoon with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, according to the U. S. National Hurricane Center. The storm was about 25 miles southwest of Cape May, N. J., and forecast to head over the Atlantic.
North Carolina and southeastern Virginia were still being buffeted with gusty winds, but Zeta was moving along at 53 mph, meaning no single place was blasted too long.