Hours after Hurricane Ida crawled across southeast Louisiana and left behind extensive damage, New Orleans officials said residents who evacuated should not come back "until further notice."
The Category 4 storm moved over New Orleans Sunday evening, and what followed were citywide power outages, significant amounts of debris and 911 service issues. Monday morning, officials began assessing damage and safety.
“Now is not the time for reentry into the city,” Mayor Cantrell said during a Monday press conference. “Stay where you are, and we will notify you when it’s safe for you to come home.”
Cantrell confirmed one death in the city from Hurricane Ida after an individual drove in their car and possibly drowned, but the mayor didn’t have any other details on the fatality. This marks the second confirmed death from Hurricane Ida in Louisiana.
For those residents who hunkered down during the hurricane, officials continued to urge them to stay put because conditions in New Orleans are still too dangerous, with downed power lines, debris and roads some of the major issues in the city.
“This is still an extremely hazardous situation,” said Collin Arnold, director of the city’s Office of Homeland Security. “(There’s) widespread debris blocking roadways, many damaged and destroyed structures and trees and powerlines downed.”
Ramsey Green, Chief Resiliency Officer, with New Orleans:
— New Orleans Public Radio (@WWNO) August 30, 2021
"This city really held the line."
Says there's a lot of debris, downed power lines. Small pockets of standing water b/c drains are blocked.
Some good news that came out of the city press conference was that there was not significant, widespread structural damage after the storm, Cantrell said. However, she confirmed buildings have collapsed and there were fires.
Ramsey Green, deputy chief administrative officer for infrastructure, said small pockets of standing water were also spotted in New Orleans because of debris that blocked catch basins.
Several instances of looting in various neighborhoods have been reported to the New Orleans Police Department, said superintendent Shaun Ferguson, and arrests have been made — it isn’t widespread, though, Cantrell added.
NOPD Chief Shaun Ferguson says there have been numerous calls of looting and police have made several arrests.
— New Orleans Public Radio (@WWNO) August 30, 2021
Ferguson said that an “anti-looting patrol” has been activated, along with officers working 12-hour shifts throughout the city.
“Looting will not be tolerated,” Ferguson said. “This is not the opportunity to be taking advantage of our vulnerable population, and we're all vulnerable at this time.”
Power most likely won’t return to the city for weeks. Though power had returned to a swath of residents in the early hours of Monday, nearly 178,000 were still in the dark by noon, according to the Entergy outage map.
Along with the rest of the region, Orleans Parish was still having issues with its 911 services. Officials told residents to go to their nearest fire or police station in the case of an emergency.
Cantrell said power and communications would remain a major issue during recovery. She urged those with access to generators to open their doors to those in need of power.
“We ask you to notify the city and be good neighbors,” Cantrell said. “Share the power you have. Open your businesses to let people charge their devices. That’s how we’re going to get through this.”
Residents who need to report damage can do so at damage.la.gov and import photos when filling out the application.
People can also donate to organizations on the ground helping with Hurricane Ida recovery in New Orleans by visiting ready.nola.gov.
