Gov. Edwards speaks after devastating Hurricane Ida slams into coast

BATON ROUGE, La. (KSLA) - Flooded homes, scattered debris, and fallen power lines...

Grand Isle faced Category 4 Hurricane Ida head-on when the storm made landfall on Sunday, Aug. 29 with winds greater than 100 mph. Residents in south Louisiana, Mississippi, and even parts of Alabama are learning information about their damaged communities and homes following Hurricane Ida’s impact.

The governor urged residents to check on their friends, neighbors, and family members. He said help would arriving in the area “as soon as possible.”

“We’re going to get through this together,” the governor said.

Estimates indicate about 1.1 million homes and businesses are currently without power due to Hurricane Ida. Power crews are working to assess the damage and restore services as soon as possible, however, the governor could not give an estimate of when that might be for residents.

He also noted that cell service has been disrupted due to the storm. Crews are also working to restore those services, but again, no estimate could be given on how long that may take.

“It’s not going to be fast, and it’s not going to be perfect,” he said.

Gov. Edwards also warned that while only one storm-related death has happened thus far, first responders are still in search and rescue mode and that more deaths could be reported. He also noted that more often than not, storm-related deaths occur after the storm has physically passed. These deaths tend to happen due to people suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning while using generators. Also, heat indexes will be high in the coming weeks, and many times, people can suffer from heat stroke and die while cleaning up their homes with no access to air conditioning.

The governor urged those who evacuated to not return to their homes until told to do so by their parish/city officials because of blocked roads, high water, etc. He also stressed that people need to put as little demand on cities’ power grids and water systems as possible.

The southeast portion of the state received tremendous damage and flooding as Ida made landfall just before noon Sunday near Port Fouchon.

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