At least six dead after Hurricane Ida devastated Louisiana

New Orleans - Sept 2 Reuters - Shattered communities across southern Louisiana were still assessing storm damage from Ida on Thursday as floodwaters had to recede in many places four days after the hurricane knocked out power to a million homes and businesses.

The Category 4 hurricane came ashore on the large barrier islands and swampy lowlands known as the Bayou, where many smaller towns are difficult to reach even without roads being clogged with fallen trees, power lines and debris hurled about by gusts of wind that reached 172 miles per hour 276 kph. Crucial offshore oil hub of Port Fourchon was directly in the path of the storm and deflected from supply boats, fuel and air ferry services, crippling operations in U.S. Gulf of Mexico

The Governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, said that there were around 600,000 people with no water and another 400,000 had to boil their drinking water before drinking it, using the tap water to drink it, he said. At least six deaths have been reported.

Ida leveled Grand Isle, a town of 740 on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico, where officials said virtually every structure was destroyed and about 40% sustained damage. The island covered about three feet one meter of sand and rendered it uninhabitable.

We don't have gas or water and sewer systems are very fragile, Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng told a news conference after flying over Grand Isle and the rest of Ida's path on Wednesday.

Lee Sheng said wrecked neighborhoods looked like a pile of matchsticks.

U.S. Rep. Lee Sheng, whose district took the brunt of the storm and joined Steve Scalise on the flight, reported seeing major shipping vessels and dry docks picked up and moved.

Biden is scheduled to inspect the destruction for himself on Friday when Edwards said he would present Joe Biden with a long list of needs.

We need all the help we can get, Edwards said.

Long lines formed outside the few places selling gasoline or distributing emergency supplies.

Although most hospitals escaped catastrophic damage, many from Louisiana were running on generators, and some in the hardest hit areas evacuated their patients to safer ground.

In Terrebonne Parish, the University Medical Building was abandoned when Ida flooded its roof and ruined the interior, but ambulances used its parking lot as a staging area to respond to emergency calls across Houma.

We have continuously stayed fit. All units have been all-hands on the deck since Monday, said Donna Newchurch, who heads the Louisiana Ambulance Alliance.

Ida struck a state where hospitals were already crowded with COVID - 19 patients and short of nurses.

Edwards said that 2,447 COVID patients were hospitalized on Wednesday, including 446 on ventilators. The state reported 12,380 new infections over the previous four days, though Edwards said the real count was likely much higher because so many testing centers were closed.