Consequences of Louisiana Ida: At least 700,000 are without electricity in Louisiana while Hurricane Ida continues to clean up

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In the wind-damaged city of Kenner near New Orleans, the mayor was blunt Saturday when asked what his city needed most.

“Power,” Mayor Ben Zahn told CNN. “We’ve suffered a lot … When you don’t have power, you need ice. So we’ve tried to give as much ice as possible because people have to keep things as cold as possible.”

On Saturday morning, more than 700,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.US.
And high temperatures will be 80 or 90 low in southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi on Saturday, with the heat index, how the temperature feels with humidity and other factors, usually in the mid-90s. , according to forecasts.

Many gas stations do not run or do not have fuel, and those that do have people waiting for hours on end.

On Saturday morning, outside a gas station in the city of New Orleans, drivers waited in serpentine and massive lines even several hours before the facility opened.

Many were looking for gasoline to power their vehicles (some to drive out of the region and others just to keep their cars as air-conditioned resting places) or to power their generators at home to maintain electricity. anant.

Eric Mertz drove 20 miles from his home in neighboring St. Mary’s Parish on Friday. Charles, to wait for gas outside a New Orleans gas station, where he believed the lines were shorter than those near his home.

I was still waiting for hours.

Ida’s recovery could be hampered by rain this holiday weekend

“I just wonder where the help is. I don’t have air conditioning. There are no lights. I had Covid last year. I was in the ICU for 14 days and I’m on oxygen (treatments now). And I don’t have electricity, it is difficult “.

A few miles away, in Metairie, police said a man was shot dead while queuing at a gas station on Friday. A suspect turned up Friday night, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto told CNN on Saturday.

Lopinto suggested shooting related to nerves worn out while waiting to get gas.

“It’s amazing that people can’t behave like adults in this situation. (…) Getting someone to die for gasoline consumption is absolutely ridiculous,” Lopinto told reporters.

Entergy Louisiana, which provides electrical service to more than a million customers, is projected to return power to the vast majority of its customers on Wednesday, CNN reported.

“I am cautiously optimistic that the timeline that Entergy has provided will be complete within these deadlines,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Friday.

The storm made landfall on Aug. 29 as a Category 4 hurricane, killing at least 13 people in Louisiana and Mississippi and devastating infrastructure there. The remnants of the storm ravaged the east coast on Wednesday and caused flooding and tornadoes and killed dozens more.
As Louisiana tries to recover, the state’s attorney general announced Friday an investigation into the deaths of some residents of nursing homes who were sheltered in a warehouse before the storm.
The fifth person transported to the Louisiana hurricane shelter dies while the state declares the investigation
Four residents had died at the time the investigation was announced, although a fifth died after being removed from the shelter, officials said Friday.
More than 800 residents of seven nursing homes had been relocated to the Independence City warehouse before the storm, and all had been removed on Thursday because of concerns about conditions, officials said. The city’s police chief said it appeared operators were struggling to meet the needs of patients and the facility was struggling to maintain power, and the attorney general has said the investigation will focus on who sent the patients. patients in the “seemingly unsafe and potentially inadequate facility”.

Biden visits Louisiana: “I promise to have my back”

On Saturday morning, most Baton Rouge (74.3%) and New Orleans (65.6%) gas stations were out of gas, according to the cuts. compiled by GasBuddy. Similarly, more than half of Lafayette’s gas stations had no gasoline.

These cuts are being motivated by a combination of growing demand and Complications in fuel supply caused by power outages, analysts said.

President Joe Biden visited Louisiana on Friday to examine the damage caused by Hurricane Ida, acknowledged people’s frustration with the pace of energy restoration, and promised federal help.
Twin sisters Bridget and Rosalie Serigny, 66, are looking for personal belongings stored in their destroyed shed in Golden Meadow, Louisiana on Wednesday.

“We will not leave any community behind, rural, urban, coastal and I promise to have my back until this is done,” Biden said.

On Thursday afternoon, the Biden administration announced it would release 1.5 million barrels of crude from the U.S. emergency reserve, in hopes of helping alleviate gas shortages.

In St. John the Baptist Parish severely flooded west of New Orleans, some water service is being restored, but much of the area is still unneeded, said parish president Jaclyn Hotard .

“There is no power in the parish and we are still struggling with communications,” Hotard told CNN’s Bianna Golodryga on Friday.

“When we were in today’s neighborhoods just assessing needs on the ground, a lot of people don’t know all the places we have available for pod places, with ice and water and MRE and other food distribution, because they don’t have communications. and / or they don’t have electricity to charge the communications they have, ”Hotard said.

Universities are still adapting

Universities that canceled classes and evacuated students from the area are still adapting.

Tulane University in New Orleans is rebuilding its fall academic calendar, including return dates and vacations, the university said Friday.

Tulane had previously said classes would be canceled at least until mid-September. This week, the university helped students by bus in Houston, where the school planned to provide food and lodging until students could fly home.

Tulane said energy restoration at the university is underway and told students he would respond to inquiries as soon as he could.

“We understand that some milestones that are normally included in the academic calendar are not yet published. Decisions on these dates will be forthcoming and we will update the fall 2021 academic calendar and notify students as these details are published,” the university.

Loyola University in New Orleans also canceled classes for at least two weeks and moved students to Mississippi and Alabama.

CNN’s Melissa Alonso, Adrienne Broaddus, Dakin Andone, Rebekah Riess, Kay Jones, Jackson Dill, Haley Burton, Keith Allen and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.

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