UPDATED 8/29, 10:16 p.m. ET: New Orleans, and all of Orleans Parish, is reportedly without power after Hurricane Ida left “catastrophic transmission damage” following its arrival on land Sunday.
Per The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, a spokesperson from Entergy New Orleans said the storm caused a “load imbalance to the company’s transmission and generation.” The company is now “making every effort to identify and rectify” things, while Homeland Security says the only power in the city is coming from generators.
According to reporter David Hammer, power will not be restored in New Orleans tonight.
See original story below.
Hurricane Ida, now a Category 4 storm, hit Louisiana grounds on Sunday, 16 years after Hurricane Katrina, with winds reaching 150 miles per hour.
The storm—which is being looked at as one of the most powerful to hit the U.S.—touched down at the Louisiana coast and entered land about 45 miles west of where Katrina, which was a Category 3 storm, initially struck, according to the Associated Press.
“This is not the kind of storm that we normally get. This is going to be much stronger than we usually see and, quite frankly, if you had to draw up the worst possible path for a hurricane in Louisiana, it would be something very, very close to what we’re seeing,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said.
After the storm’s center landed at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, at 11:55 a.m. CDT Sunday, and as Ida hits southeast Louisiana, it’s bringing dangerous winds and flooding with it. As the Weather Channel reports, only two other hurricanes have landed on the state with winds reaching 150 mph, Hurricane Laura in 2020, and the 1856 “Last Island” Hurricane.
As videos of intense flooding emerge online, the National Weather Service has issued an extreme wind warning in Southeast Louisiana until at least 4:30 p.m. CDT, meaning winds up to 135 mph could be a possibility in such areas.
The Weather Channel reports that Ida is centered west of Grand Isle, Louisiana, with it traveling 13 miles per hour through the lower Mississippi and Tennessee valleys, likely weakening along the way to a tropical storm and then a tropical depression.
Despite anticipated damage, including flooding and hazardous winds, Boosie Badazz still held his Boosie Bash show in Baton Rouge last night—telling fans it was “still on” even with the storm approaching.
