At Least 4 Dead in Hurricane Ida in the Southern US

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] At least four people have died so far due to Hurricane Ida, which struck the southern United States.

According to the Associated Press and others on the 31st (local time), heavy rains caused by Ida washed away highways in Mississippi, resulting in two deaths and ten injuries. The Mississippi Highway Patrol reported that Highway 26 in George County was swept away by heavy rain, causing seven vehicles to fall beneath the 6-meter-deep washed-out road, leading to casualties.

In Louisiana, a 71-year-old man was killed by an alligator near his flooded home. There was also a report of a resident who died after being crushed by a fallen tree due to strong winds. In Louisiana, 670 people trapped by floods were rescued, and 20 people in Mississippi were evacuated with the help of rescue authorities.

The large-scale power outage is also a serious issue. In Louisiana, currently, one million homes and businesses are without power. A massive transmission tower supplying electricity to New Orleans, Louisiana, across the Mississippi River, was twisted and collapsed by the storm, and over 3,200 km of transmission lines and 216 substations were damaged.

The power outage is expected to continue for some time. Louisiana electric utility companies described the damage to the power grid caused by Ida as a "catastrophe," predicting that full restoration could take several weeks.

In some areas of Louisiana, even the water supply has been cut off. Disaster response authorities issued a warning that water supply was suspended for 441,000 residents in 17 local governments, and 319,000 people were advised to boil water due to contamination concerns.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center forecasted that "Ida is currently moving northeast, bringing rain to Tennessee and Ohio, and will head toward the central Atlantic on the 1st of next month."

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