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Affected in LaPlace, Louisiana: Chaotic conditions
Photo: PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP
Aiders have rescued hundreds of people in the US state from areas hit hard by Hurricane Ida.
In the district of St. John the Baptist alone, almost 800 residents were brought to safety from flooded or damaged houses, said community chief Jaclyn Hotard, according to media reports on Monday evening (local time).
The water in the place was about 1.50 meters high.
"This is one of the worst natural disasters I've ever seen," she said.
According to Louisiana's Governor John Bel Edwards, dozens of boats, helicopters and special vehicles are deployed to rescue people in the disaster area.
Around 5000 soldiers of the National Guard were also assigned to clean-up and rescue work.
In the coming days they should get reinforcements from other states.
Further fatalities feared
So far there have been two confirmed deaths as a result of the storm.
A person was killed by a falling tree in Prairieville, the authorities said.
A second person died trying to drive through the floods in New Orleans, the Louisiana Department of Health wrote on Twitter.
In view of the destruction, however, it is feared that the number of victims will increase.
Thousands of workers and experts are also busy restoring the power supply - hundreds of thousands of households in the state are still without electricity, including New Orleans with its approximately 400,000 inhabitants.
"Ida" had badly damaged the high-voltage lines.
Overall, the damage in the city, which was hit by the deadly hurricane »Katrina« in 2005, remained comparatively limited.
The protection system built up after "Katrina" with a lot of money in the affected communities "really worked very well, otherwise we would have a lot more problems today," said the governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards (Democrats), on the NBC program "Today «.
"Ida" reaches the neighboring state of Mississippi
“I was here 16 years ago.
The wind seems worse this time, but the damage isn't that bad, ”said Dereck Terry, a retired pharmacist and resident of New Orleans' famous French Quarter.
“I have a broken window.
Some roof tiles are on the street and water has run into them, «says the 53-year-old.
"Ida" hit the coast southwest of New Orleans on Sunday as a category four out of five hurricane.
Hours later it weakened to a tropical storm.
In the meantime, "Ida" has reached the neighboring state of Mississippi with wind speeds of up to 55 kilometers per hour, as the National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced on Monday evening (local time).
There, too, there was a risk of flooding due to heavy rains.
bbr / dpa / AFP