Days after Ida, storm recovery uneven across Louisiana

The power outages after Hurricane Ida are making the sweltering summer unbearable in much of New Orleans. But that misery is compounded in some areas outside the city by a lack of water, flooded neighborhoods and severely damaged homes.

Four days after the Ida struck, the storm’s lingering effects were being felt unevenly across Louisiana. Meanwhile, the remnants of the system walloped parts of the Northeast, dumping record-breaking rain in a region that had not expected a serious blow and killing at least 18 people from Maryland to New York.

New Orleans was protected from catastrophic flooding by the levee system that was revamped after Hurricane Katrina. The power was back on Thursday before dawn in parts of the city’s business district and other downtown neighborhoods. Utility crews also restored electricity to several hospitals in Jefferson Parish and near Baton Rouge, officials said.

The overwhelming majority of homes were still dark. In seven parishes, at least 95% of customers remained without power Thursday. Only 35,000 of the 405,000 homes and businesses in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish had power Thursday morning, according to the poweroutage.us website. Statewide, 917,000 customers were without electricity, down from about 1.1 million at the height of the storm.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said he’s pleased that power returned for some people.

“I’m very mindful that it’s a start, and only a start,” he told a news conference.

Power would be restored to most customers in the greater Baton Rouge area by Sept. 8. after workers finish assessing the damage to the grid, Entergy Louisiana President Philip May said Thursday. That assessment is not as far along in the harder-hit regions, so Entergy said it has no timetable for getting service to those areas, which include New Orleans.

The hurricane that hit Sunday with 150 mph (230 kph) winds was tied for the fifth-strongest hurricane ever to hit the mainland U.S.