Hurricane Ida leaves residents without electricity amid the scorching heat

Schools are closed indefinitely. Officials say there will be a power outage for three weeks. Cell service is spotty, and hospitals already burdened with Covid-19 rely on generators and water stores as water and sewer outages are widespread.

Roads are blocked, stores are closed and the heat is punishing, the National Weather Service issued Tuesday’s heat advisories for southern Louisiana and southern Mississippi, predicting a heat index of 105 degrees.

“If you have been evacuated, it is very clear that now is not the time to return,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards told a news conference late Monday. “Quite frankly, we need to place as low a demand on our water systems and our electric grid as possible.”

Ida has killed at least four people. Two people died late Monday in coastal Mississippi after a highway collapse led to a massive sinkhole, according to the state Highway Patrol. Another 10 people were injured, 3 were seriously injured.

In Louisiana, one person died from a fallen tree, and another drowned while driving in flood waters.

The St Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office said it is investigating a potentially fatal alligator attack related to the storm, when a woman in Slidell said her husband was attacked and apparently going into floodwaters. Were.

Ida made landfall on Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane near Port Fourchon, LA, south of New Orleans. Winds gusted up to 150 mph, more than 20 barges broke loose in the Mississippi River, downed an electric tower and downed cypress and live oak trees.

Ida marks the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the region. Since Katrina, a $14.5 billion flood-protection system—including flood walls, drains, canals, and barriers built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—has helped protect against hurricanes around New Orleans. The area surrounded by the flood-protection system appeared to be less flooded than the suburbs outside it.

Officials said on Monday they were happy that the system appeared to be working as intended, but cautioned that flooding could remain a threat.

Analytics firm CoreLogic Inc. The U.S. estimated that 515,952 homes were affected by Ida’s winds, compared to Hurricane Katrina, which affected 792,824 homes. This may be partly because the storm hit an area less populated than Katrina, according to the firm.

More than a million people were without electricity in Louisiana and 60,000 in Mississippi on Tuesday, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outage reports from utilities. Service at 911 centers remained disrupted, although New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell tweeted Monday that 911 service had been restored to the city.

According to the Louisiana Department of Health, more than 300,000 customers in Louisiana had a water shortage as of 3 p.m. Monday, the latest figures available, and another 300,000 were under a boil-water advisory. According to the Mississippi State Department of Health, about 3,000 customers in coastal Mississippi had boil-water alerts.

In New Orleans, according to the city’s Sewerage and Water Board, nearly all sewer pumping stations lost power, leaving the possibility of a backup. The utility relied on generators to start powering stations, and in the meantime, it asked residents to limit water use.

Officials are warning residents of Jefferson Parish, which includes suburbs such as Metairie and Gretna, west and south of New Orleans, that it could be 21 days before power is restored. They also say it could take up to five days for water and sewer systems to be operational again, prompting many residents who storm to run out and leave, some with family members from out-of-state and other hotels. Looking for rooms. hours from the city.

The region’s leading electricity provider, Entergy Corp, said strong winds took down 207 transmission lines, the high-voltage conduit that carries electricity from power plants to substations that connect to low-voltage distribution lines. Company officials said the damage is complex and widespread, making it difficult to predict how quickly power might be restored.

Parents and students prepare for weeks to months of school closures. Officials at Tulane University in the center of New Orleans said they planned to load any remaining students on buses to Houston, which is more than a five-hour drive away, on Tuesday morning. According to the school’s website, the university remains closed until at least 12 September.

Many roads were blocked by fallen debris, and Interstate 10, a major east-west route, was restricted to emergency responders only between Baton Rouge and New Orleans on Tuesday.

Louisiana Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Wilson tweeted that drivers needed to stay off the road, but said he was pleased that 582,000 people were safely from southern parishes before the storm, based on analysis of cellphones and other auto technology. was evicted. ping data.

Hospitals have already been strained by a resurgence in Covid-19 cases. The Ochsner health hospital system had evacuated or transferred 65 patients from two Louisiana hospitals in Raceland and Houma, officials said Monday, citing roof damage and water leaks.

The storm also disrupted the tourism industry for the foreseeable future in this dependent city.

Ty Fuller, 55, and a registered nurse from Lawrence, Kansas, had rented a house in the French Quarter via Vrbo for a week with five family members. “It’s definitely not what we expected,” he said. Three members of the party were able to get out by renting a U-haul, but he and his two sons were stranded. “We weren’t able to get out before the storm,” he said. “All flights were closed and all rental cars were gone.”