Numerous people could be saved from Hurricane “Ida”, but the damage is massive. Around a million people are without electricity – and that could stay that way for a while longer
After the passage of Hurricane Ida, aid workers rescued hundreds of people from flooded areas in the southern US state of Louisiana. More than a million households were still without electricity, as authorities reported on Monday evening.
“Ida” has now weakened to a tropical storm and, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), has reached the state of Mississippi with wind speeds of up to 55 kilometers per hour. So far there have been four confirmed deaths. In view of the destruction, however, it is feared that the number of victims will continue to rise.
In the district of St. John the Baptist alone, almost 800 residents were brought to safety from flooded or damaged houses, said community leader Jaclyn Hotard, according to the media. The water in the place was about 1.5 meters high. “This is one of the worst natural disasters I’ve ever seen,” she said.
Louisiana’s Governor John Bel Edwards says dozens of boats, helicopters and special vehicles are deployed to rescue people in the disaster area. Around 40 people on the island of Grand Isle, who had been hit by “Ida” on Sunday, were also brought to safety with helicopters.
Around 5000 soldiers of the National Guard were also assigned to clean-up and rescue work. They should get reinforcements from other states in the coming days. Thousands of workers are also busy repairing the electricity networks. New Orleans, with a population of around 400,000, is also without electricity – precisely during the summer heat, when most people depend on electrical air conditioning.
“Weeks” without electricity?
The governor could not give the people much hope in this regard: “I cannot tell you when the power supply will be restored, I cannot tell you by when all the debris will be cleared,” he said. “That was a catastrophic storm.”
The White House warned that restoring supplies completely could take “weeks”. The damage reported by electricity suppliers was “catastrophic,” said spokeswoman Jen Psaki. Governor Edwards said the military would bring additional generators to hospitals.
Initially there were two confirmed fatalities. A man was killed by a falling tree, another tried to drive his car on a flooded street and drowned, authorities said. It was later reported that parts of an expressway were washed away in the state of Mississippi, killing two people.
In view of the damage, there is no “miracle” fear that the number of victims will rise in the coming days, Edwards warned. Because of the floods, many areas are difficult to access. In addition, power outages and problems in the cellular network make communication more difficult. Even the emergency number could not be reached at times, according to media reports.
Edwards and the Mayor of New Orleans, LaToya Cantrell, urged everyone who had found safety elsewhere in time for the storm not to return for the time being. There are problems with the water supply in many places, there is no electricity, hardly any open shops and too many streets are still flooded or full of rubble. “Now is not the time to go back,” said Edwards. People should wait for local authorities to explicitly welcome a return.
Videos of the Coast Guard’s first flights over coastal areas showed a picture of the devastation – many houses appeared to be badly damaged, and villages were like a field of rubble. In most places, citizens had been asked to get to safety inland before the storm.
The head of the disaster control agency Fema, Deanne Criswell, and home security minister Alejandro Mayorkas wanted to get an idea of the situation together with the local governor on Tuesday.
“Ida” hit the coast southwest of New Orleans on Sunday as a force four out of five hurricane. The storm hit New Orleans on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which wreaked havoc in 2005. Around 1,800 people were killed at that time. Since then, billions of dollars have been invested in flood protection. Edwards and Mayor Cantrell said the system had now passed its acid test during “Ida”. If dams were broken, disaster would have been inevitable, Edwards said.
The situation was different with the power supply: All eight high-voltage lines leading to New Orleans were damaged or destroyed by “Ida”. The head of the utility Entergy, Phillip May, said a massive high-voltage line across the Mississippi River, which had once survived even “Katrina”, was badly damaged and no longer functional. dpa
