Storm Ida: Biden to view catastrophic damage in Louisiana as power crawls back to parts of New Orleans

Officials across the state urge White House for fuel as utility providers work to restore electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes

Hurricane Ida: Incredible drone footage shows scale of flooding

As emergency response crews begin to survey the damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, thousands of homes in Louisiana’s coastal communities are left unrecognisable from the impact of the storm, which made landfall on 29 August as a category 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds.

As flood waters recede and damage is cleared from roadways across several parishes and low-lying communities in the storm’s path, residents and emergency personnel have assessed catastrophic damage – collapsed homes, battered roofs and flooded homes.

President Joe Biden will visit the state on 3 September and stay through the weekend to meet with state and local officials and survey damage in hard-hit areas.

More than 1 million residents in the state remain without power, as officials and utility companies dispatch thousands of workers to repair lines, transformers and critical electric infrastructure damaged by the storm.

In New Orleans, where roughly 200,000 residents stayed during the storm’s impact, utility company Entergy restored power to a sliver of New Orleans East on Wednesday morning, the company announced, adding that “full restoration will still take time given the significant damage across the region.”

Governor John Bel Edwards said he spoke with the White House several times over fuel concerns, as residents queue in hours-long lines in the heat to fill gas cans, or form equally long queues in their cars, in hopes of fuelling generators or filling up their tanks to get out of town.

“Louisiana provides fuel for the rest of the country, and now we need the rest of the country to give up a little bit of their fuel,” the governor said on Wednesday.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell also said she is urging FEMA for fuel.

Residents and restaurants have meanwhile organised massive food and water drives, used generator power to open community device-charging stations, and supported statewide mutual aid efforts to help fund relocation efforts and support vulnerable residents stuck in hot and humid conditions.

State and federal emergency responders have also opened pick-up points for supplies and cooling stations to avoid the heat.

Officials have urged residents who evacuated to avoid re-entering the state until crews have made more progress in clean-up and rebuilding efforts.

The remnants of Ida, which dissipated into a tropical depression as it moved inland, also brought flooding, thunderstorms and heavy rainfall across the northeastern US on 1 September.

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Key Points

• Biden to visit Louisiana this week
• How Louisiana hospitals are enduring Ida’s aftermath
• How the climate crisis is making storms like Ida worse
• Power crawls back into parts of New Orleans
• Thousands of residents without power as crews assess damage

[1 September 2021 20:45 · Alex Woodward]

Atlantic storm season sees ‘above normal’ number of named storms and hurricanes

Less than 10 days from the seasonal peak of hurricane season on 10 September, the National Hurricane Center says tropical cyclone activity has been “above normal” thus far, with six named storms in August alone, and three of them becoming “major” weather events.

“The 11 named storms through the end of August is well above” the 30-year average of six to seven named storms by the end of the month, the agency said in a statement.

[1 September 2021 21:48 · Alex Woodward]

Governor Edwards calls for fuel to head to Louisiana

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards stressed the need for “bulk fuel” to head to the state, with refineries indefinitely offline.

“Quite frankly, I don’t know when that’s going to be,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “Louisiana provides fuel for the rest of the country, and now we need the rest of the country to give up a little bit of their fuel.”

He spoke with the White House three times on Wednesday, he said, and all conversations involved fuel.

[1 September 2021 21:50 · Alex Woodward]

One year after a pair of devastating storms in southwest Louisiana, state hopes to rely on new White House focus

Governor Edwards told reporters on Wednesday that he intends to leverage the renewed focus from the White House on Louisiana after Ida to get support for southwest Louisiana, after two hurricanes dealt a major blow to a region that still has not received supplemental emergency relief in their wake.

“There’s no excuse for why it’s a year later and we don’t have it for southwest Louisiana,” he said.

[1 September 2021 22:36 · Alex Woodward]

Video shows dolphin swimming in Louisiana neighbourhood in Hurricane Ida aftermath

A family in Slidell, Louisiana, just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, spotted a dolphin in their neighborhood swimming in a flooded waterway.

[1 September 2021 22:47 · Alex Woodward]

We’re closing live coverage of storm Ida and its aftermath. Stay tuned with The Independent.