Hurricane Ida moves inland while wreaking havoc along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, authorities said Sunday night, reporting that at least one person has died.
In a Facebook statement, the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office said it had received reports shortly after 8:30 p.m. about a person injured by a fallen tree in Prairieville, Louisiana.
Upon arrival, agents confirmed the first victim’s death reported from the storm, the APSO added.
Early Sunday, Hurricane Ida made landfall as a dangerous Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported.
Ida became a Category 2 storm around 10:00 p.m., with winds of 110 mph.
The storm, which center was around 25 miles west-southeast of New Orleans, was moving northeast at about 10 mph.
Earlier, thousands of people fled the state as Hurricane Ida approached the Gulf of Mexico.
On Saturday, Governor John Bel Edwards warned residents that their time window was closing, advising them to prepare as the weather could deteriorate very quickly.
Moreover, US president Joe Biden said Ida was turning into a “very, very dangerous storm,” adding that the federal government was ready to help.
On Sunday, PowerOutage.US reported that more than a million people had no electricity due to the storm.
The figure included over 990,000 customers in Louisiana and more than 30,000 in Mississippi.
Moreover, Entergy New Orleans issued an alert Sunday night, saying “catastrophic transmission damage” left the entire Orleans parish without power.
According to Entergy, the eight transmission lines that supply power to the city were out of service, hampering sewer pumps’ operations.
Later on Sunday, President Joe Biden granted the Louisiana Governor’s request for a major disaster declaration and ordered federal agents to assist recovery efforts across the country.
“Hurricane Ida is one of the strongest storms to ever hit Louisiana,” a news release from Gov. John Bel Edwards said.
Meanwhile, fallen trees on the roadway forced Louisiana’s Department of Transportation to shut down 22 miles of Interstate 10, a major thoroughfare connecting the state’s eastern and western areas.
