Hurricane Ida slams Louisiana, the ‘extremely dangerous’ storm traps people in attics and on roofs

Hurricane Ida moved from Louisiana to Mississippi Monday, after leaving some Louisianans trapped and pleading for rescue. On social media, people posted their addresses and directed search and rescue teams to their attics or rooftops.

In Jefferson Parish in suburban New Orleans, Emergency Management Director Joe Valiente said nearly every home reported roof damage. Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said the parish had yet to respond to at least 200 rescue calls, and emergency officials had not heard from the town of Grand Isle since Sunday afternoon. About 40 people stayed on the barrier island, which took the brunt of the hurricane.

Ida hit the Louisiana coast Sunday, on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Ida’s 150 mph winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane ever to hit the mainland.

Ida, which has since downgraded to a tropical storm, is expected to continue moving through Mississippi Monday, and into the Tennessee Valley by Tuesday.

As of Monday morning, at least one person was reported dead after being struck by a falling tree. However Shauna Sandford, the Communications Director for Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards tweeted saying “Don’t be misled. Assessments still have to be made and unfortunately, we expect that number to go up.”

More than one million Louisianans lost power in the wake of Ida, according to PowerOutage. This included the entirety of New Orleans on Sunday night. “The plant that provides power to Energy New Orleans was compromised,” Mayor Latoya Cantrell said. “This plant is not located in Orleans Parish. However, we rely on this plant to ensure that we have power throughout the city.”

Unlike with Hurricane Katrina, the levees in New Orleans appeared to have held against Ida. “For the most part, all of our levees performed extremely well — especially the federal levees — but at the end of the day the storm surge, the rain, the wind all had devastating impacts,” Gov. Edwards said. “We have water systems that are out. We have tremendous damage to homes and to businesses.”