Small signs of recovery amid Ida’s destruction
NEW ORLEANS >> Lights came back on for a fortunate few, some corner stores opened their doors and crews cleared fallen trees and debris from a growing number of roadways Wednesday — small signs of progress amid the monumental task of repairing the damage inflicted by Hurricane Ida.
Still, suffering remained widespread three days after Ida battered Louisiana and parts of Mississippi as the fifth-most-powerful hurricane to strike the U.S. Some low-lying communities remained largely underwater. Roughly a million homes and businesses still had no electricity, and health officials said more than 600,000 people lacked running water. In other developments:
• Photos show what appears to be a miles-long oil slick near an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida, according to aerial survey imagery released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and reviewed by The Associated Press.
Both state and federal regulators said Wednesday that they had been unable to reach the stricken area, citing the challenging conditions in the disaster zone.
• President Joe Biden will visit Louisiana Friday to survey the aftermath of Hurricane Ida and speak with local and state leaders, the White House said Wednesday.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said he was pleased that power had returned for some people, saying it was “critically important to show progress” after the storm. But he also acknowledged that much more work lay ahead.
The death toll rose to at least six after a coroner confirmed a 65-yearold woman had drowned in her Louisiana home and police in Maryland said a 19-year-old man was found dead in an apartment complex flooded by heavy rain from Ida’s remnants. And the staggering scope of the disaster began to come into focus, with a private firm estimating total damage from Ida could exceed $50 billion.
Edwards said Louisiana was blessed to have only two deaths from Ida so far given the magnitude of the hurricane’s devastation.
There were still 989,000 homes and businesses without power, or 44% of all state utility customers in southeast Louisiana