The passage of Hurricane Ida, now downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, has left at least six dead, massive power outages, floods and extensive damage in Louisiana and some areas of Mississippi , although it seems that it has not reached the gravity that was feared in large part thanks to the reconstructed levees of the New Orleans area.
In New Orleans, residents breathed with relief from the smooth running of levees rebuilt by the federal government to protect the city and prevent a catastrophic flood similar to that caused by Katrina in 2005.
“For the most part, all of our levees performed extremely well, especially the federal levees,” said Louisiana Governor John Edwards.
However, “some levees that protected smaller communities outside of New Orleans failed like the one in Allance, south of the city.” On the other hand, in the town of Jean Lafitte, the rupture of a dam caused “ considerable damage “, reported today the private meteorological company AccuWeather.
The state of Louisiana will receive this Friday the visit of President Joe Biden , who will tour the most affected areas and meet with state and local authorities.
Multi-state damage trail
Three days after Ida landed on the Louisiana coast near Port Fourchon, as A fearsome Category 4 hurricane, the trail of destruction it leaves behind is becoming more widely known, with at least six deaths due to torrential rains that sank bridges and flooded large populated areas.
As it degrades inland, either as a storm or depression, the system continues to cause torrential rains .
As Ida continues on her way to the northeast of the country leaving heavy rains as they pass through Virginia and heading to New York, New Jersey and Washington, federal agencies continue to be involved in rescue and relief efforts and delivery of aid to the victims.
“ Ida is a major storm that has left a lot of damage and heavy losses in southern Louisiana “, said this Wednesday at a telematic press conference Daniel Llargués, national spokesman for the Federal Agency for Emergency Management (FEMA, in English).
Llargués stressed that FEMA has deployed a total of 1. 400 effective in the state of Louisiana and already carried out about 8, 900 structural damage assessments, in addition to having 4.5 million food service and 3.6 million liters of water for those affected.
“ Until time FEMA has received 185, 000 requests for assistance due to the disaster ”suffered after the onslaught of Ida, he said, to add that the US Small Business Administration (SBA), “is also supporting Louisiana business owners, homes or renters.”
There is still a long way to go for the full recovery of the large affected areas, but progress has been made, for example, with the power restoration already in much of eastern New Orleans, which had gone completely dark on Sunday.
According to the web specialized Poweroutage.us., still today 991, 000 homes remain without electricity in Louisiana and others 31. 000 in Mississippi, which is why a restoration team has also been deployed to help of energy of the Army.
For its part, the American Red Cross hosted Tuesday night in its 35 Shelters open in Louisiana at about 2, 100 people, of which 600 received some kind of “ emotional, medical or spiritual help “.
The spokesperson and director of communications for the American Red Cross, Grace Meinhofer, indicated at the conference that the institution has of aid and aid to those affected in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama .
Meinhofer pointed out that from today they will also reach those affected with mobile kitchens and insisted that donations are in cash, since they do not accept essential items due to the need to disinfect any merchandise that arrives to avoid a possible contagion by covid – 19.
Orlando Bermúdez, from the National Weather Service in San Antonio, Texas, pointed out that Ida, despite being already a post-tropical system, is throwing today “ copious rains ”in its advance towards the northeast, American.
Therefore, there is the “ danger of floods and tornadoes ”For the next 24 hours in the Mid-Atlantic of the country, in the states of New Jersey, New England, Maryland, Washington DC, Pennsylvania and Virginia, with rainfall accumulations of up to 10 inches (24 centimeters).
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