Ida aftermath: Power outages in Louisiana, Mississippi persist for a fourth day
Hurricane hit region 4 days ago
By Julia Musto | Fox News
Ida pummels Northeast; at least 20 people dead
Power outages persisted in Louisiana and Mississippi for hundreds of thousands of people in the days after Hurricane Ida tore through the region.
Late Thursday morning, outage tracker PowerOutage.US showed about 34,200 customers in Mississippi were without power and more than 904,000 in Louisiana were left in the dark.
IDA REMNANTS BRING DEATH, DESTRUCTION TO NORTHEAST, DAYS AFTER STORM SLAMMED GULF COAST
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Speaking at a news conference four days following the fifth-strongest hurricane ever to strike the continental U.S., utility officials said they still did not know when power would be restored in New Orleans.
Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc on the state's electrical infrastructure, disabling the eight major transmission lines that carry power into the city and knocking out power for more than 1 million customers statewide.
Berth Topolanek, center, who lost power due to Hurricane Ida, watches from her doorstep as energy workers assess and repair lines in her neighborhood, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021, in New Orleans, La. Power was restored to an area just blocks away Monday, but some part of New Orleans may be without power for weeks. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Entergy New Orleans CEO Deanna Rodriguez said the company hopes to have concluded damage assessment by the end of the day and could then have a timeline for when the power could be restored to significant numbers in New Orleans and some of the harder-hit areas, according to NOLA.com
Entergy Louisiana CEO Philip May said power would be restored to most customers in the greater Baton Rouge area by Sept. 8.
Tens of thousands of workers from Louisiana, Mississippi and other states deployed this week to aid in the effort and hospitals, police departments and fire stations were made priorities, Rodriquez said.
BIDEN TO VISIT HURRICANE IDA DEVASTATION IN LOUISIANA ON FRIDAY
While power was returning on Thursday, in seven parishes at least 95% of customers remained without power.
The impact of outages in the Southern states was worsened by hot and humid conditions, compounded in some locations outside the city by a lack of water, food and gasoline to power generators.
Northeast flash flood videos capture dangerous Ida remnantsVideo
Officials in New Orleans have opened seven locations where residents can eat a meal and sit in air conditioning and Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the city was also using 70 buses as cooling sites.
At least seven deaths were blamed on the storm in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, including two 19-year-old Pike Electric employees killed Tuesday as they were restoring power near Birmingham.
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Ida, now a post-tropical cyclone, also killed at least 26 people in the Northeast on Wednesday, bringing more tornadoes, record rainfall and life-threatening flooding to the region.
President Biden is scheduled to visit Louisiana on Friday.
Fox News' Sara Ballou and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
