Hurricane Ida is close to exiting the state, now heading through north Tangipahoa Parish on its way to St. Helena and East Feliciana as a category one hurricane. Some wind impacts are still expected across the Northshore throughout the night and emergency response officials warn people not to leave their homes yet for fear of down powerlines and surprise flooding.
In the more than 12 hours since Ida first made landfall near Port Fourchon only one death has been officially reported, that of an Ascension Parish man who died when a tree fell on his home. That number is likely to grow once the sun comes up over the Bayou State and response teams can fully survey the damage along the coast and in Laplace where a reported seven feet of water was covering the I-10 nearby.
According to the public service commission a million Louisiana households are without power but that number is expected to grow in the coming hours.
President Joe Biden vows to put the country’s “full might” behind rescue and recovery efforts in southeast Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Ida.
Biden says they’ve pre-positioned a number of federal assets including 2.5 million meals and three million liters of water. He says they have generators in place and are in contact with power companies…
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The New Orleans region suffered “catastrophic” damage to the power grid, losing a transmission tower and all eight transmission lines serving New Orleans and the east bank of Jefferson Parish.
Biden says they’ve been praying for the best but planning for the worst and are ready to help starting this morning. He says FEMA is ready to move in and assist ASAP…