Hurricane Ida: more than 1m without power as New Orleans assesses damage

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Ida had tied with last year’s Hurricane Laura and an unnamed hurricane in 1856 as the strongest to hit the state. According to a report from the New Orleans Advocate, some patients at Thibodaux Regional Health System in Lafourche parish, south-west of New Orleans, had to transport Covid-19 patients to a different floor due to a partial power outage.

Staff had to ventilate patients by hand, pushing air in and out their lungs through bags in lieu of mechanical ventilators. It was not clear how many patients had to be moved. Jerome Zeringue, a Louisiana state representative, said he had been in touch with a doctor who reported that generators had failed in the intensive care unit and that conditions were “Katrina-esque”.

The state health department said generators at other hospitals were operating, although two suffered roof leaks and dozens of patients were relocated. Broderick Sanders, a 31-year-old resident of Slidell, on the north-eastern side of Lake Pontchartrain, evacuated into New Orleans on Friday. He said he watched on a security camera live stream as his home was submerged.

“Everything went under,” he said, sitting on the steps of a hotel downtown. “It was crazy watching it.” He was with his wife and one-year-old daughter, Tynara, and said he was unsure when he would return home. Sanders, who survived Katrina but lost his father and uncle, said Ida was completely different. “I feel much luckier this time,” he said. The Slidell mayor, Greg Conner, told CNN waters had risen in “every neighbourhood in town”. “In about a three-hour period we had probably a 5ft to 6ft rise in the bayou and the lake estuary system that pushed water into a number of people’s homes on the south side of our community,” he said.