The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Seniors left in dark, hot homes after storm
New Orleans officials vow to inspect all facilities.
NEW ORLEANS — Officials in New Orleans will 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.
The managers of some of the homes for seniors evacuated out of state without making sure the residents would be safe after the storm, New Orleans 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 will likely 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 involve 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 on 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 eight days ago. 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 residents and businesses have been leaving on curbs will begin today, officials said.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Monday that he’s taken steps to help make 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. The proclamation also suspended various state court legal deadlines until Sept. 24.
Joe Sobol, owner of Big Easy Construction in New Orleans, has bad news for homeowners who’ve been calling about roofs damaged by Hurricane Ida or to get an update on renovations that were scheduled before the storm ripped through the area.
The job will cost a lot more than usual — and take much longer, too.
Ida slammed into the Gulf Coast — then took its destruction to the Northeast — at a time when building con- tractors were already grap- pling with severe shortages of workers and depleted supply chains. The damage inflicted by Ida has magnified those challenges.
The struggle to find enough skilled workers and materials will likely drive up costs, complicate planning and delay reconstruction for months.
“My expectation,” said Ali Wolf, chief economist at the real estate research firm Zonda, “is that it only gets worse from here.”
Consider that Lake Charles, Louisiana, 200 miles west of New Orleans, still hasn’t recovered from the damage left when Hurricane Laura tore through the area a year ago.
The challenges facing con- struction companies stem from what happened after the nation endured a brutal but brief recession when the viral pandemic erupted in March 2020: The econ- omy rebounded far faster and stronger than anyone expected. Businesses of all kinds were caught offguard by a surge in customer demand that flowed from an increasingly robust economic recovery.
Workers and supplies were suddenly in short supply. For months now across the economy, businesses have been scrambling to acquire enough supplies, restock their shelves and recall workers they had furloughed during the recession.
Construction companies have been particularly affected. Among building executives Zonda surveyed last month, 93% complained of supply shortages. Seventy-four percent said they lacked enough workers.
And that was before Ida struck.
“Natural disasters do cause a strain on building materials, reconstruction materials and on labor,” Wolf said. “The difference today is that the entire supply chain has been battered even before Ida’s occurrence. You really have all these things hitting at the exact same time. Frankly, the last thing the supply chain needed was extra strain.’’
A result is that the cost of materials and supplies has been surging. Combined prices for windows, doors, roofing and other building products jumped 13% in the first six months of this year, according to Labor Department data. Before 2020, by contrast, such aggregate prices would typically rise a bit more than 1% annually, on average, in the first six months of a year.
Prices for steel mill products were up more than twofold in July from a year earlier. Gypsum products, which are needed for drywall, partitions, ceiling tiles and the like, were up 22%.
Henry D’esposito, who leads construction research at the real estate services company JLL, said the toughest challenge in rebuilding now is the delay in acquiring drywall, glass, steel, aluminum and other materials.
“A lot of the materials that you would need for any project and especially something this urgent — you’re not able to get on-site for weeks or months,” D’esposito said.