Evacuees urged not to return home after devastation from storm Ida

[September 01, 2021]  By Devika Krishna Kumar

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Evacuees who fled Ida before the storm hammered southern Louisiana are being urged not to return home just yet as the long, arduous recovery is only beginning from one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Three days after the Category 4 hurricane came ashore, more than a million homes and businesses remained without electricity on Wednesday and power utility Entergy Corp warned it may take weeks to restore service in some areas where transmission towers lay in crumpled heaps of metal.

The storm killed at least four people and will leave many thousands more in misery as countless homes were destroyed and towns were flooded, evoking memories of Hurricane Katrina, which killed some 1,800 and nearly destroyed New Orleans 16 years ago.

Officials were unable to complete a full damage assessment because fallen trees were clogging many roads, U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Deanne Criswell said.

In one sign of desperation, cars lined up for nearly a mile to get drinking water from volunteers at Lockport, Louisiana, on Tuesday.

Lockport is near one of the hardest hit towns, Houma, population 33,000 and about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of New Orleans.

The storm ripped off roofs and felled power lines as it hovered over the area for hours, maintaining much of its strength.

 An aerial view shows destroyed houses in a flooded area after Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana, in Montegut, Louisiana, U.S. August 31, 2021. REUTERS/Marco Bello

Officials of Terrebonne Parish, which includes Houma, issued a statement imploring people not to return, saying there was no electricity, water service was unreliable, emergency shelters were damaged, and none of the hospitals were operating.

"Evacuees: DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT come back to Terrebonne Parish if you evacuated," officials said in advisory posted on Twitter by a reporter for WWL television.

"There is NO medical care because there are no operating hospitals in Terrebonne Parish right now," the notice said, adding that previously admitted patients were being moved.

Houma residents Scott and Daria Hebert told WAFB television they regretted not evacuating ahead of time and were attempting to flee on Tuesday.

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