Small Louisiana communities bear brunt of Hurricane Ida

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A damaged location is shown aft Hurricane Ida moved done Monday, Aug. 30, 2021, successful LaPlace, La. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

LAPLACE, La. – Debbie Greco and her household cowered connected a stairway landing arsenic Hurricane Ida sent 4 feet (1.2 meters) of muddy h2o rushing into her location successful LaPlace on the westbound broadside of Lake Pontchartrain.

She and her lad had safely rescued her aged parents from their location down the thoroughfare Sunday. But present they prayed the extortion would not illness connected each of them.

“God blessed america that we each survived,” she said Monday aft they were rescued by boat.

While New Orleans mostly escaped catastrophic flooding during the storm, LaPlace and different adjacent communities were not truthful lucky.

In LaPlace, Ida tore roofs disconnected homes and flooded full subdivisions. Residents retreated to their 2nd floors oregon attics and took to societal media to plead for vessel rescues arsenic the h2o rose.

That assistance came connected Monday, erstwhile rescue trucks and boats connected trailers took radical to safety. Other residents got to adust crushed by wading done knee-deep h2o carrying pets and different belongings.

Dozens of radical pulled pieces of chimneys, gutters and different parts of their homes to the curb.

“My dreams are destroyed," said John Vincent, 65, different LaPlace resident. "I mean, astatine my property I’ve got to commencement each over.”

New Orleans' levee strategy — overhauled astatine a outgo of billions of dollars aft Hurricane Katrina breached it — held up against Ida's rampage. Ida struck connected the 16th day of Katrina, which devastated the metropolis and was blamed for 1,800 deaths successful 2005.

But successful LaPlace, enactment lone precocious began connected a long-awaited levee task that isn't expected to beryllium completed until 2024.

The working-class metropolis of adjacent to 30,000 radical sits betwixt the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, a 640-square mile (1,658-square kilometer) estuary. It’s portion of a agelong of communities on the stream betwixt metro New Orleans and Baton Rouge that is location to large chemic companies and refineries.

Flooding besides devastated the assemblage of Crown Point astir 17 miles (27km) southbound of New Orleans, wherever rescue crews deployed high-water trucks and swamp boats. Wayne Templet got friends and pets successful the country to information successful his motortruck and said the tempest was “adding accent to an already stressful life.”

In Lafitte, a tiny assemblage southbound of Crown Point, adjacent homes connected stilts were flooded and residents had to usage boats to navigate the submerged streets and retrieve their belongings. And successful Houma, a metropolis of astir 30,000 radical southwest of New Orleans, Ida's winds had stripped the roofs disconnected of businesses, flat complexes and single-family homes.

On Grand Isle, the 40 residents, firefighters and constabulary officers who rode retired the tempest stay stuck connected the obstruction island, but a chopper flew implicit connected Monday and respective firefighters moving to wide a roadworthy gave the radical connected committee a thumbs up, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto said.

Ida made landfall conscionable to the westbound of Grand Isle with a upwind gust recorded astatine 172 mph (277 kph) and seawater swamped the island. The tempest past moved up Highway 1 — the lone roadworthy to the mainland, and the ribbon of asphalt done low-lying swamps remains impassible.

The sheriff said helium can't accidental everyone connected the land astir 55 miles (88 kilometers) southbound of New Orleans is accounted for, but the thumbs-up made him consciousness better. Emergency officials are moving arsenic accelerated arsenic they tin to scope them successful person.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Monday that local, authorities and national boats, precocious h2o vehicles and craft rescued 671 people. The authorities would soon modulation to a door-to-door hunt of the hardest-hit areas to find whether anyone needs assistance, helium said.

Many homes that did not flood oregon endure different harm were inactive without electricity, and officials warned it could beryllium weeks earlier the powerfulness grid is repaired.

More than 1 cardinal customers successful Louisiana and Mississippi — including each of New Orleans — were near successful the dark. Eighteen h2o systems were besides out, impacting much than 312,000 people, and an further 14 systems affecting different 329,000 radical were nether boil h2o advisories, Edwards said.

He urged evacuees not to effort to instrumentality home, citing the wide powerfulness outages, roadworthy closures and different unsafe conditions.

“There are an atrocious batch of unknowns close now. There are surely much questions than answers," helium said. “I can’t archer you erstwhile powerfulness is going to beryllium restored. I can’t archer you erstwhile each the debris is going to beryllium cleaned up and repairs made and truthful forth.”

Some residents vowed to rebuild aft the storm, but Greco and her father, Fred Carmouche, said they are bushed of the changeless hurricane fears connected the Gulf Coast.

“When I rebuild this I’m retired of here. I’m done with Louisiana,” Carmouche, 85, said.

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Associated Press reporters Stacey Plaisance successful Crown Point, David J. Phillip successful Lafitte, Kevin McGill successful New Orleans, Jeff Martin successful Marietta, Georgia, and Sudhin Thanawala successful Atlanta contributed to this report.

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