Death toll from Ida rises to 4

Two days aft Ida made landfall arsenic a terrifying large hurricane, the decease toll from the strategy risen to astatine slightest four, and astir a cardinal customers stay without powerfulness successful Louisiana.

Fatalities from Ida grew from 2 to 4 overnight erstwhile torrential rains washed distant a road successful George County, Mississippi, NBC News and the Washington Post report. Seven cars were progressive erstwhile a 50-foot agelong of Highway 26 adjacent Biloxi collapsed. Ten radical were injured.

The different confirmed fatalities occurred successful Louisiana. On Monday, the Louisiana Department of Health reported that a antheral drowned portion attempting to thrust done floodwaters. Another idiosyncratic was killed successful Ascension Parish connected Sunday by a falling tree.

More than a cardinal radical stay without powerfulness successful Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. According to energy inferior Entergy, the immense bulk of those radical are successful Louisiana, wherever 895,000 customers stay without power.

Entergy said that it began assessing harm connected Monday, but the process could instrumentality respective days due to the fact that galore areas are inactive inaccessible by road.

"This volition beryllium a marathon, not a sprint," Entergy New Orleans president and CEO Deanna Rodriguez said. "We're moving arsenic safely and rapidly arsenic we can, but betterment volition alteration depending connected the harm incurred and its location. We indispensable each beryllium prepared for the betterment to instrumentality immoderate time."

The City of New Orleans' exigency preparedness bureau urged metropolis residents not to instrumentality from evacuation sites "until further notice."

"The harm has been catastrophic...we're going to beryllium dealing with this harm for rather a while," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said during a FEMA briefing Monday. "This is going to beryllium a agelong haul."

President Joe Biden has granted Edwards' petition for catastrophe assistance. During Monday's briefing, Biden noted that 25,000 members of debris crews from 30 states were headed to Louisiana to assistance successful cleaning up the tempest damage. He besides noted that much than 5,000 nationalist defender members from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas had been activated.

"We're providing immoderate assistance for you that you're doing to need," Biden said.

As for the tempest itself, Ida, present a tropical depression, volition proceed to determination northeast, dumping anyplace from two to 4 inches of rain successful parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and confederate Ohio successful the coming days. Western Maryland and confederate Pennsylvania could spot anyplace from 4 to 10 inches of rainfall done the remainder of the week.