Over 400K Remain Without Power in Louisiana 9 Days After Hurricane Ida
More than 400,000 Louisiana residents are still without power, nine days after Hurricane Ida made landfall in the state.
According to a map from PowerOutage.US, across 2,219,163 customers tracked, at least 418,110 are currently without power in Louisiana, as of publication time. The map shows that the most reported power outages are currently in the counties of Jefferson (129,911 outages) and New Orleans (48,376 outage).
The number of outages reported in Louisiana comes more than a week after Hurricane Ida brought heavy rainfall and widespread damage to the state as a Category 4 storm.
While many are still without power in Louisiana, the number of outages reported on Tuesday indicates a decrease from the last week, as over 900,000 were previously without power in the state. The energy company Entergy, which operates power for most of New Orleans, previously said that residents in the "hardest-hit areas" could be without power for weeks.
In a statement on Monday, Entergy said that "Just eight days after being struck by one of the most destructive hurricanes to ever hit the United States, more than half of the 902,000 total customers who lost power have been restored."
According to the statement, as of Monday, 48 percent of Louisiana's "697,000 customers who lost power in Hurricane Ida have been restored," which was an increase of 42 percent from the previous day.
"Two thirds of New Orleans' 205,000 outages have been restored. Entergy and its team of 26,000 will continue restoration where it is safe to do so and where power can be received, with most customers expected to be restored between now and the end of the day Wednesday, Sept. 8," the statement said.
Data from Entergy also shows that Hurricane Ida damaged or destroyed more energy distribution poles than hurricanes Katrina, Ike, Delta and Zeta, combined.
In a statement on Monday, the city of New Orleans said that the city's health department conducted wellness checks at multiple senior living faculties and said that at least five senior citizens were found dead in these facilities.
According to the statement, eight facilities were "deemed unfit for ongoing occupancy."
"What we found was unacceptable and accountability will be across the board," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said during a press conference on Monday. "But right now we will remain focused on improving the conditions in the facilities that we closed. We will not see this happen again."
On Sunday, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced that the death toll from Hurricane Ida rose to 13.
