New Orleans 'Katrina Nightmare'... Power Outages and Casualties from Hurricane

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] The entire city of New Orleans was plunged into a blackout as Hurricane Ida, a massive hurricane, struck Louisiana in the United States.

On the 29th (local time), according to the Associated Press, the New Orleans Homeland Security Emergency Operations Center cited the power supply company Entergy, stating, "The entire city is without power. The only electricity being supplied is from generators."

According to Entergy, the entire city of New Orleans lost power after 7 p.m. local time. The outage tracking site PowerOutage reported that "power supply was cut off to more than approximately 810,000 locations."

The hurricane caused continuous damage that day. Strong winds knocked down trees causing casualties, and ships broke loose from their moorings. Water overflowed from Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, and the Mississippi River experienced backflow due to the storm's impact.

President Biden approved the declaration of a state of emergency in Louisiana and Mississippi and promised to provide maximum support for recovery efforts.

At the time of landfall in Louisiana that day, the maximum wind speed reached 240 km/h but is now reported to be 175 km/h. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced, "Ida has weakened to a Category 2 hurricane but is bringing strong winds and flooding to parts of southeastern Louisiana."

Ida made landfall on the same day as Hurricane Katrina, which struck Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years ago. When the Category 3 Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005, levee failures and flooding caused a disaster that resulted in the deaths of about 1,800 people in these coastal towns.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.