Hurricane Ida weakened to a tropical storm Monday after slamming into coastal Louisiana as one of the strongest storms to make landfall in the region, cutting off power to more than 1 million homes and businesses, including the entire city of New Orleans.
The powerful weather system continued to pose a danger for multiple states as it moves inland, and was expected to trigger major search and rescue operations. But complicating those missions are inoperable 911 lines reported throughout southeastern Louisiana, including the heavily populated Orleans and Jefferson parishes.
Officials earlier warned of “life-threatening” floods. At least one person, a 60-year-old man, died in Ascension Parish, south of Baton Rouge, after a tree fell on his home, authorities said.
Electric utilities reported that slightly more than 1 million homes and businesses were without power in Louisiana and another 100,000 in Mississippi. Entergy New Orleans, the main power utility in the city, with nearly 200,000 customers, said the entire city lost electricity early Sunday evening because of “catastrophic damage” to its transmission system. The company tweeted Monday that it “will likely take days to determine the extent of damage to our power grid in metro New Orleans and far longer to restore electrical transmission to the region.”
The National Hurricane Center said that the rain and storm surge has “resulted in catastrophic impacts along the southeast coast of Louisiana.” It warned of dangerous storm surges and flash floods around southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi after Ida made landfall as a Category 4 storm with howling 150 mph winds on the same day that Hurricane Katrina struck 16 years earlier.
Now crawling toward Mississippi, Ida had sustained winds of around 45 mph as of 8 a.m. ET. The hurricane center warned that gusts could still cause damage as it continues to moves inland.
The hurricane’s high winds ripped roofs from buildings in New Orleans, scattered debris across the famed French Quarter, toppled large trees and brought on flooding in Grand Isle, Louisiana. In St. Rose, in greater New Orleans, video posted on social media showed two large boats crashing into each other.
In St. John Parish, located west of New Orleans along the east bank of the Mississippi River, people used social media to report residents trapped in attics as the floodwaters climbed.
“I know that we’re not in it by ourselves, and it’s going to be OK,” Tiffany Miller, a LaPlace resident who retreated to her attic, told NBC affiliate WDSU overnight Monday as she estimated 3 to 5 feet of water inundated her subdivision.
Early Monday, local officials were preparing to survey the damage as the sun came up and teams got ready to head out to check on those who called for rescue throughout the night. Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng told NBC’s “TODAY” that around 250 calls for rescue came in overnight.
“We are ending what was a terrifying night for many individuals waiting for their rescue,” she said. “Today is the day we are going to see the damage.”
Levees in the Lafitte area were reported to have been topped, but did not have structural damage, she added.
The latest on Hurricane Ida:
- Hurricane Ida made landfall Sunday, the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, as a Category 4 storm near Port Fourchon, Louisiana. Gov. John Bel Edwards described it as “one of the strongest storms to make landfall here in modern times.”
- Ida weakened to a tropical storm early Monday.
- The National Hurricane Center warned of “dangerous” storm surges. Authorities said a 60-year-old man was found dead after a tree fell on his home.
- Just over 1 million homes and businesses were without power across the state, including all of Orleans Parish, and 911 lines were down across southeastern Louisiana.
- Find more up-to-the-minute updates at our live blog.
Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that more damage than initially predicted is likely.
“This is going to be a really long recovery,” she said on early Monday on MSNBC.
New Orleans city’s sewer and water board said the power loss could affect a “very significant” number of its 84 sewer pumping stations. The board said that it had obtained backup generators for some, but that “in order to prevent sewage backups, we have asked residents to limit water usage at home, thus decreasing the amount of wastewater we must remove.”
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards asked people to remain in place, saying that the storm has “left many hazards across Louisiana including flooded roadways, debris and downed power lines.”
Heavy rain was expected throughout the day, with accumulated totals of up to 2 feet possible in parts of southeastern Louisiana and Mississippi.
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Ida made landfall over Port Fourchon, Louisiana, at about 11:55 a.m. CT (12:55 a.m. ET) as the storm moved into the mouth of the Mississippi River, the hurricane center said.
At landfall, the storm’s winds were just short of 157 mph, the level considered a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, which rates storms from 1 to 5 based on maximum sustained wind speed. Only four storms have made landfall in the continental U.S. as Category 5 hurricanes in the last century: the Labor Day Hurricane in 1935, Camille in 1969, Andrew in 1992 and Michael in 2018.
President Joe Biden approved Louisiana’s disaster declaration on Sunday night, freeing federal aid for people and governments in the affected areas.
“This is going to be devastating — a devastating, a life-threatening storm,” Biden told reporters after he was briefed by FEMA officials. “So please, all you folks in Mississippi and in Louisiana … take precautions, listen, take it seriously.”
New Orleans police warned Monday morning that “now is not the time to leave your home” with trees and power lines down.
New Orleans Police Chief Shaun Ferguson said that the city would implement its anti-looting deployment. After Hurricane Katrina hit the city in 2005, looters broke into stores, taking jewelry, clothing and more.
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