Hurricane Ida Batters Louisiana, Leaving New Orleans Without Power

Ida arrived at Port Fourchon, 60 miles south of New Orleans, at noon. It was a Class 4 hurricane, the second-highest storm classification. It introduced pounding rain, sustained winds of 150 miles an hour and harmful sea surges.

All of New Orleans had misplaced energy by Sunday night time, an Entergy spokesman confirmed. Greater than 1 million clients statewide had been with out energy, in line with information from poweroutage.us. Earlier within the day, the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans suggested folks to not run dishwashers or washing machines to reduce wastewater as a result of sewage pump stations had been knocked out by energy outages.

The primary demise from the storm was reported by the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Workplace, which stated deputies responded Sunday night time to experiences of an individual injured from a fallen tree and arrived to search out the sufferer deceased.

Storm trackers stated that even after a number of hours, the hurricane remained as sturdy as when it made landfall, although by early Monday morning it was downgraded, first to Class 1, then to a tropical storm.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards stated there have been roughly 1,500 folks in 23 shelters, and people numbers had been anticipated to extend as folks found that their properties had been not liveable. He suggested residents to abide by curfews set by parishes and to remain off roads. He stated this is able to be one of many strongest storms the state has skilled since at the very least the 1850s.

“There isn’t a doubt that the approaching days and weeks are going to be extraordinarily tough for our state,” Gov. Edwards stated at a day press convention. “Many individuals are going to be examined in ways in which we are able to solely think about right this moment.”

Katrina, which made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, as a Class 3 hurricane, killed greater than 1,800 folks and brought on greater than $100 billion in property harm, largely due to the failure of levees that led to catastrophic flooding.

A significant concern about Ida was whether or not a $14.6 billion hurricane risk-reduction system put in place since Katrina would face up to the storm’s surges. Gov. Edwards stated there can be some overtopping of levees however that levee failures weren’t anticipated.

Nonetheless, even harm much less extreme than a full breach might have devastating results, stated Andy Horowitz, an affiliate professor of historical past at Tulane College in New Orleans and creator of “Katrina: A Historical past, 1915-2015.”

“Many individuals could die from flooding and drown of their properties if the system is overtopped even when the partitions don’t fall down,” he stated.

The hurricane comes as Louisiana hospitals are already burdened with Covid-19 sufferers. Instances from the extremely contagious Delta variant have surged within the state, and officers cautioned that any casualties from the storm would additional pressure the system. Some residents cited that danger as a further motive for evacuating.

Talking on the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Administration Company, President Biden urged residents to take precautions. He stated the federal authorities is working to open dozens of shelters and is ready to distribute 2.5 million meals and three million liters of water. He signed emergency declarations for Louisiana and Mississippi.

In New Orleans, with many locals gone when the storm arrived, retailers and eating places within the famed French Quarter had been boarded up as wind gusts buffeted town.

The Mississippi River close to Jackson Sq. was roiling. Winds coming from the Gulf reversed the river’s route, which officers stated wasn’t unusual for a storm of this magnitude.

Zach Harrison, 25 years previous, a Tulane College of Social Work scholar, stated he determined to shelter in place with two buddies in Mid-Metropolis however now regretted the choice. They cooked 5 kilos of shrimp and listened to Van Morrison till the ability went out Sunday afternoon.

“I’m fearful in regards to the wind blowing the roof off. I’m additionally fearful about excessive flooding,” Mr. Harrison stated. “I stayed due to indecisiveness. By the point you notice it’s actually, actually dangerous, it’s Sunday already.”

Ida had intensified early Sunday to a Class 4 hurricane, after crossing the warmest and deepest a part of the Gulf of Mexico, the Nationwide Climate Service in New Orleans stated.

The area was anticipated to see rainfall of as much as 20 inches or extra. A surge of 12 ft to 16 ft was anticipated between Port Fourchon and the mouth of the Mississippi River. Tornadoes had been doable from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. The climate service additionally issued an excessive wind warning for areas close to New Orleans on Sunday.

“If you’re below a compulsory evacuation…LEAVE NOW!” the climate service in New Orleans warned Saturday night. “You don’t want to mess around along with your life, and it’s not price it to remain if in case you have the means to depart.”

Eating places, bars and different companies in and round New Orleans had been closed since Saturday afternoon. Many had been boarded up and fortified with sandbags as early as Saturday. Even 24-7 dive bars corresponding to Ms. Mae’s and Brothers 3 closed Saturday morning. Solely a Walmart, a Winn-Dixie and some different shops had been open Saturday within the metropolis’s uptown neighborhood.

Many individuals in low-lying areas had moved their automobiles to greater floor. By Saturday night time, only some folks strolled down Bourbon Avenue within the usually packed French Quarter.

Austin Lane, 38, who owns a Mexican restaurant referred to as El Cucuy, deliberate to journey out the storm Sunday simply to the north in Carriere, Miss. He drove out of New Orleans on Saturday afternoon along with his girlfriend, Meghan Ackerman, 40, their 4 canines, two cats and two chickens.

Most of his 19 staff additionally evacuated, some to Houston and one to as distant as Missouri, he stated.

The couple introduced a generator, headlamps, candles, sausage and two crates of water. Because the hurricane pounded their shelter, they introduced the chickens inside and cracked open a bottle of bourbon.

“Certainly not is it a supersafe vacation spot,” Mr. Lane stated. “It’s nonetheless within the path of the hurricane. It’s simply the very best I might do after I received my folks out and will lock the place up.”

Ida is stirring up a way of dread, reminding residents of the catastrophic harm and lack of life attributable to Katrina.

“Because it falls on the date of Katrina, individuals are fairly spooked and taking it severe and evacuating,” Mr. Lane stated.

New Orleans ordered residents residing exterior town’s levee system to evacuate. Electrical utilities had been mobilizing greater than 10,000 employees throughout the state to handle energy outages, officers stated.

The Nationwide Hurricane Heart issued a hurricane warning for New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas in Louisiana, and alongside the Gulf Coast from Intracoastal Metropolis to the mouth of the Pearl River on the Louisiana-Mississippi border.

On Saturday, visitors leaving town on Interstate 10 over Lake Pontchartrain had been bumper-to-bumper as folks evacuated. However some stayed behind to journey out the storm.

In Houma, La., which was anticipated to get 10 ft of storm surge, Dr. Howard Russell, 65, stated he was planning to remain house Sunday, although his daughter Gabrielle Russell, a 23-year-old nursing scholar, evacuated from New Orleans to Kingwood, Texas.

Ms. Russell stated she was fearful about her father staying in the home the place she grew up, as a result of there’s a lake past their yard. “We’ll be experiencing fairly just a few ft of water. You simply by no means know the way a lot rain can construct up,” she stated.

Her father, who shall be in the home alone, boarded up its entrance door and deliberate to look at the information Sunday. He stated he has sufficient gasoline to run his generator for every week and provides to final a month. However he was nonetheless hoping that the storm would move and that he would have the ability to drive to work Monday morning.

“It’s not my first rodeo,” Dr. Russell stated. “My greatest fears are all my shingles coming off my roof.”

Ida’s path made it a risk to the huge oil-refining and petrochemical advanced alongside the U.S. Gulf Coast, which produces some 4.4 million barrels a day of refining capability, virtually 1 / 4 the nation’s whole.

Oil corporations within the Gulf of Mexico account for about 17% of U.S. oil manufacturing and 5% of pure gasoline output. As of Sunday, Gulf offshore producers had shut about 96% of their oil manufacturing and 94% of gasoline output, in line with the Bureau of Security and Environmental Enforcement.

Earlier than the storm reached the Louisiana coast, oil refiners within the area had additionally decreased refining capability. Colonial Pipeline Co., operator of the most important U.S. gasoline conduit, shut two key traces that transfer gasoline from Houston to Greensboro, N.C., whereas two others that run from North Carolina to Linden, N.J., had been nonetheless working, it stated Sunday.