A million people without electricity and New Orleans completely dark. 941,121 homes were left without electricity in Louisiana and 27,400 in Mississippi due to Hurricane Ida, a category 4 storm, which struck the United States yesterday with winds that blew up to 240 kilometers per hour.
Panic in the city of New Orleans with the flooded St. John the Baptist Church and citizens in search of safety, mindful of the terrifying damage caused in 2005 by another hurricane, Katrina.
“The city of Jean Lafitte in Louisiana has been completely devastated and rescuers are unable to reach hundreds of residents trapped by a bridge collapse.” Mayor Tim Kerner Jr. told CNN, underlining that “boats cannot be used to reach them, it is too difficult, it would put your life at risk”.
The majority of the 1,500 inhabitants of the community that is part of the parish of Jefferson, about fifty kilometers south of New Orleans, have been evacuated but “we have about 200/300 people still there,” “continued the mayor. suffered from floods before, storms, but I have never seen such water in my life ».
At the moment, there is only one casualty due to the fury of the storm, but it could be the beginning of a more serious toll in the coming hours. It would be a man crushed by a tree.
President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency for Louisiana and Mississippi, already committed and facing the Covid emergency. In Louisiana alone, there are nearly 3,000 patients hospitalized in serious conditions in state hospitals.