At least four dead in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, extensive damage still not quantified amid the floods and the uncertainty about the restoration of electricity to more than a million consumers is the balance two days after the hit of Hurricane Ida in the United States.
With a deployment of members of the National Guard, Red Cross, and aid from various states, including Texas and Florida, search and rescue efforts for possible victims are progressing, one of the priorities, as well as the removal of debris after the impact of Ida on the US coast in the Gulf of Mexico.
Southeastern Louisiana, a state declared since last Sunday as disaster zone by US President Joe Biden, was the most devastated by flooding and strong winds from the powerful hurricane, which destroyed much of the electrical wiring, especially in the New Orleans metropolitan area.
The federal government measure facilitates grants for temporary shelter and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured properties, as well as other programs for affected entrepreneurs.
In Norco, Louisiana, streets flooded by the Ida Pass. Photo EFE
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards toured hurricane-affected areas, including LaPlace, a community near New Orleans facing severe flooding.
Without light or relic of jazz
The panorama in New Orleans that remains completely without electrical fluid as part of more than a million Louisiana customers, it is devastating.
Lots of power poles and cables they are under water or entangled in the trees, some of them half-fallen, and the work to identify electrical damage is barely progressing, which suggests a long period before the restoration of service.
In Estelle, Louisiana, poles down and no power. AFP photo
Subjected to dangerous heat in the region and without the possibility of air conditioning, some have taken to the streets to collect rubble and try to clean the fronts of their homes, while others have taken the opportunity to loot destroyed properties.
The city also regrets the destruction of an emblematic building where a young Louis Armstrong worked, lived and launched his artistic career (1901-1971).
In a video published by the local channel WIAT-TV shows the magnitude of the damage caused to the building where the musician worked for the Tailoring and Residence of the Karnofsky, a Jewish family.
From the construction, which was steeped in history related to jazz, only a pile of rubble remained.
A favorable part of Ida was the possibility of test major levee systems of hurricanes in the New Orleans area rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
This time they endured the force of Ida, which made landfall twice in Louisiana as a powerful category four hurricane and is moving as a tropical depression through the Tennessee Valley on Tuesday.
On the other hand, speculation about the rise in the price of gasoline and the call of the authorities to avoid the panic that worsens the situation.
The authorities assess possible damage to refineries in Louisiana, with at least nine of them totally or partially closed and 95% of the oil production in the Gulf of Mexico paralyzed, according to CNN.
The Alliance Refinery, near Belle Chasse and that processes more than 250,000 barrels of crude oil daily, was partially flooded after the water from Hurricane Ida broke a levee that had been improvised with large sandbags, the local newspaper The Times-Picayune reported today.
Alligator attack
Meanwhile the list of dead continues to grow, with a total of four in both states, especially in road accidents due to deterioration of infrastructure and floods.
Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser fear a raise of the victims especially in areas that were devastated by the floods such as Grand Isle and Lafitte, where some refused to evacuate.
On Monday two people were killed and ten more were injured near Lucedale, Mississippi, in an accident that involved several vehicles that slipped and ended up in a hole about 6 meters long for about 15 meters deep created by the hurricane.
Another of the victims of the hurricane was a man who drowned Monday while driving on a flooded road in New Orleans.
Meanwhile, another 60-year-old man died Sunday after a tree fell at his home in Ascencion County. in the metropolitan area from Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana.
The authorities are trying to find and confirm the possible death of a fifth man, aged 71, who would have been attacked by an alligator in a flooded area in Slidell, Louisiana.
The local WWLTV channel pointed out that the man was attacked in his shed that had been flooded and, although his wife managed to rescue him from the animal, she could not save him from the waters or ask for help because it was already without electrical service.
Source: EFE and AFP
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source https://pledgetimes.com/hurricane-ida-leaves-at-least-four-dead-and-more-than-a-million-people-without-electricity-in-the-united-states/
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