New Orleans in darkness as Ida weakens, residents take stock of damage

Hurricane Ida has become a tropical storm as its top winds slowed over Mississippi, while across southeast Louisiana residents waited for daylight to be rescued from floodwaters and see how much damage was caused by one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to strike the US mainland.

All of New Orleans lost power right around sunset on Sunday, leading to an uneasy night of pouring rain and howling winds. The weather died down shortly before dawn and people began carefully walking around neighbourhoods with flashlights, dodging downed light poles, pieces of roofs and branches.

Levees failed or were overtopped in the maze of rivers and bayous south of New Orleans, threatening hundreds of homes. On social media, people posted their addresses and locations – directing search and rescue teams to their attics or rooftops.

Officials promised to start the massive rescue effort as the weather broke and the sun rose.

Ida moves north

The torrential rains mostly moved into Mississippi on Monday as the storm slowly moved north. Destructive winds and water already had a catastrophic impact along the southeast coast of Louisiana, and life-threatening river flooding continued well inland, the National Hurricane Center said.

Ida made landfall on the same day 16 years earlier that Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi, and its 230 kph (150 mph) winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland. It was already blamed for one death, someone hit by a falling tree in Prairieville, outside Baton Rouge, deputies with the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Sunday.

More than a million without electricity

More than a million customers in Louisiana and Mississippi were without power according to PowerOutage.US, which tracks outages nationwide, increasing their vulnerability to flooding and leaving them without air conditioning and refrigeration in sweltering summer heat.

Entergy confirmed that the only power in New Orleans was coming from generators, the city’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness tweeted, citing “catastrophic transmission damage.” The city relies on Entergy for backup power for the pumps that send storm water over the city's levees. The system is much-improved since Katrina, but Ida is posing its biggest test since that disaster.

The 911 system in Orleans Parish also experienced technical difficulties early Monday.

Late on Sunday, the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office said on Facebook that deputies responded to a home in Prairieville on a report of someone injured by a fallen tree. The person, who was not identified, was pronounced dead.

READ MORE: Hurricane Ida makes landfall in Louisiana as Category 4 storm

Rising ocean

The Category 4 storm hit on the same date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier, coming ashore about 72 kilometres (45 miles) west of where Category 3 Katrina first struck land. Ida’s 230 kph (150-mph) winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland US. 

It dropped hours later to a Category 3 storm with maximum winds of 193 kph (115 mph) as it crawled inland, its eye 48 kilometres (30 miles) west of New Orleans.

The rising ocean swamped the barrier island of Grand Isle as landfall came just to the west at Port Fourchon. Ida made a second landfall about two hours later near Galliano. The hurricane was churning through the far southern Louisiana wetlands, with the more than 2 million people living in and around New Orleans and Baton Rouge under threat.

“This is going to be much stronger than we usually see and, quite frankly, if you had to draw up the worst possible path for a hurricane in Louisiana, it would be something very, very close to what we’re seeing,” Governor John Bel Edwards told The Associated Press.

READ MORE: US Gulf Coast residents brace for 'extremely dangerous' Hurricane Ida

Wind tore at awnings, water spilled out of Lake Ponchartrain in New Orleans, and boats broke loose from their moorings. The Coast Guard office in New Orleans received more than a dozen reports of breakaway barges, said Petty Officer Gabriel Wisdom. In Lafitte about 35 miles (56 km) south of New Orleans, a loose barge struck a bridge, according to Jefferson Parish officials.

Elsewhere, engineers detected a “negative flow” on the Mississippi River as a result of storm surge, US Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Ricky Boyette said.

New Orleans hospitals planned to ride out the storm with their beds nearly full, as similarly stressed hospitals elsewhere had little room for evacuated patients. And shelters for those fleeing their homes carried an added risk of becoming flashpoints for new infections.

Biden approves emergency declarations

Forecasters warned winds stronger than 185 kph threatened Houma, a city of 33,000 that supports oil platforms in the Gulf.

The hurricane was also threatening neighbouring Mississippi, where Katrina demolished oceanfront homes. With Ida approaching, Claudette Jones evacuated her home east of Gulfport, Mississippi, as waves started pounding the shore.

“I’m praying I can go back to a normal home like I left,” she said. “That’s what I’m praying for. But I’m not sure at this point.”

President Joe Biden approved emergency declarations for Louisiana and Mississippi ahead of Ida’s arrival. He said Sunday the country was praying for the best for Louisiana and would put its “full might behind the rescue and recovery” effort once the storm passes.

Edwards warned his state to brace for potentially weeks of recovery.

“Many, many people are going to be tested in ways that we can only imagine today,” the governor told a news conference.

READ MORE: Ida forecast to hit US as Category 4 hurricane on Katrina anniversary