More than a million people remained without power in and around New Orleans on Monday as residents and authorities began to assess the damage from Hurricane Ida, a 240km/h monster storm that was the most powerful ever to hit Louisiana.
At least one person was known to have been killed, by a falling tree. The state's governor, John Bel Edwards, warned that he expected the death toll to rise.
Crews using airboats and helicopters were conducting search and rescue missions in several neighbourhoods, seeking people stranded in flooded homes or caught in flash floods. Almost 5,000 national guard troops had been activated.
Residents woke to scenes of devastation caused by the category 4 hurricane that made landfall on Sunday at Port Fourchon, then tore a path north towards New Orleans. The storm struck the city on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,800, mostly by flood.
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On Monday, roofs torn from buildings, fallen trees, utility poles and other storm debris blocked roads and hampered rescue workers. Downed power lines, many still live, created a dangerous situation for those emerging to look at the damage.
“The hurricane packed a very powerful punch. She came in and did everything that was advertised, unfortunately,” Mr Edwards said in a video message.
“We have tremendous damage to homes and to businesses, we know that individuals are out there waiting to be rescued because their homes are not habitable [and in] many places we have flood waters that are encroaching upon those homes.
“Please know that we have thousands of people out right now, with high-water vehicles and boats, who are doing search and rescue. We have dozens of helicopters up.”
Tropical storm
Ida was downgraded to a tropical storm but was still expected to deliver "life-threatening flooding" and damaging winds as it moved north and west through Mississippi and the Tennessee Valley.
Residents of New Orleans, which was totally blacked out after a key electricity transmission tower fell into the Mississippi River, went outside to survey the damage. In the historic French Quarter, streets were lined with storm detritus: fallen trees, roofing bricks, wrought iron railings severed from balconies above.
The sound of barking dogs and the buzzing of generators echoed down usually busy streets, now empty and near silent.
With little indication of when power would be restored, many looked to get out of the city. As one resident walked down Royal Street, examining the damage, she turned to her partner and said: “Mother Nature had its day.”
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Ida tied with last year’s Hurricane Laura and an unnamed hurricane in 1856 as the strongest to hit the state.
According to a report from the New Orleans Advocate, some patients at Thibodaux Regional Health System in Lafourche parish, southwest of New Orleans, had to transport Covid-19 patients to a different floor due to a partial power outage.
Staff had to ventilate patients by hand, pushing air in and out their lungs through bags in lieu of mechanical ventilators. It was not clear how many patients had to be moved.
‘Katrina-esque’
Jerome Zeringue, a Louisiana state representative, said he had been in touch with a physician who reported that generators failed in the intensive care unit and that conditions were “Katrina-esque”.
The state health department said generators at other hospitals were operating.
Broderick Sanders, a 31-year-old resident of Slidell, a city on the northeastern side of Lake Pontchartrain, evacuated into New Orleans on Friday. He said he watched on a security camera live stream as his home was submerged.
“Everything went under,” he said, sitting on the steps of a hotel in downtown. “It was crazy watching it.”
He was with his wife and one-year-old daughter, Tynara, and said he was unsure when he would return home.
Mr Sanders, who survived Katrina but lost his father and uncle, said Ida was completely different.
“I feel much luckier this time,” he said.
The Slidell mayor, Greg Conner, told CNN waters rose in “every neighbourhood in town”.
“In about a three-hour period we had probably a 5ft to 6ft rise in the bayou and the lake estuary system that pushed water into a number of people’s homes on the south side of our community,” he said.
Officials warned of a lengthy wait for the restoration of power and in some areas water. In Jefferson parish, which includes Kenner and parts of Metairie west of New Orleans, councilman Dominick Impastato said it could be at least a week before water main breaks were repaired.
Entergy, the electricity company that serves New Orleans and the surrounding area, was unable to give an estimate of when power would be restored, but warned that some areas faced a three-week wait or more. – Guardian