Louisiana residents who have been without power since Hurricane Ida hit last week could see more severe weather Monday.
Parts of southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi, including Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Gulfport, are under a heat advisory, as high temperatures will be in the upper 80s and lower 90s, with a heat index between 100 and 105 degrees. In addition, a flash flood watch is in effect in the region from noon through the evening Monday as slow-moving thunderstorms are expected to develop. These storms will produce widespread heavy rain of 2 to 3 inches in a short period of time, which will likely lead to flash flooding due to soils already saturated with water. Meanwhile, about 530,000 customers in Louisiana still do not have electricity, according to PowerOutage. US. The lack of power, excess heat and issues with water and fuel have made the ongoing conditions dangerous. «We have seen a lot of folks getting heatstroke and other illnesses from not having access to medicine,» St. Charles Parish President Matthew Jewell told CNN on Monday. «That’s why we worked real hard this week to get a lot of our pharmacies opened up. That’s why we’ve been working with the Sheriff’s Office to make sure we do wellness checks on our elderly population because you just can’t sit in this type of heat for extended periods of time.» Communities all along Ida’s path — from Louisiana up through New York — are still working to recover more than a week after the storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. Though it weakened into a tropical depression as it reached the Northeast, its heavy rains still brought devastation to the region. In both regions, roadways turned to rivers, lives were lost and structures were destroyed by strong winds and rising waters. The recovery and repair could last weeks in some places, officials said. President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration for five counties in New York and six counties in New Jersey, a designation that allows for federal assistance, state officials said. In Queens, New York, those impacted by the storm were seeking resources to help in the recovery Sunday. Some needed help getting their utilities back, some needed help with the water damage and others needed assistance with the emotional traumas. «If you drive around Queens, it looks like a bomb went off.
