Sept 1 Reuters - Hurricane damage from Ida astounded officials on Wednesday three days after the powerful hurricane hit southern Mississippi, as reconnaissance flights revealed entire communities devastated by winds and floods.
With President John Bel Edwards expected to survey the destruction for himself on Friday, Louisiana Governor Joe Biden issued a plea for emergency supplies to assist a million homes and businesses without power as well as 600,000 people without water.
The number of fatalities rose to six on Wednesday after the confirmed deaths of two electrical workers in Alabama who had been repairing the power grid, according to an executive at utilities provider Pike Electric.
Thousands more were in disaster, with countless homes destroyed and towns flooded, evoking memories of Hurricane Katrina that almost destroyed some 1,800 people and had nearly killed New Orleans 16 years ago.
The southern coastline where Ida came ashore on Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane was hardest hit, with the barrier island city of Grand Isle declared uninhabitable by the parish president after it was covered with three feet one meter of sand.
I had no idea how devastating the storm was, Jefferson Parish President Steve Scalise told a news conference on Wednesday after flying over Grand Isle and the rest of Ida's path along with U.S. Representative Cynthia Lee Sheng, whose district took the brunt of the storm.
I'm a broken community right now, Lee Sheng said. It looks like matchsticks, like a little pile of matchsticks you're flying over. Virtually every structure on the island of 740 people had been destroyed and about 40% sustained damage, she said.
Scalise reported seeing major marine vessels and dry docks picked up and moved. That tells you just what kind of strongest winds hit for sustained hours at a time, he added.
In nearby Houma City, south of Terrebonne Parish, the main street of New Orleans was strewn with metal and wood that had peeled off buildings. A tattoo parlor's front door was ruined and stained glass was scattered along the road.
Federal and local officials said that their immediate focus was on getting water, food and ice to the most vulnerable, especially the elderly, to cope with rising temperatures. The weather service issued warnings for parts of Houma with a heat index rising above 100 degrees Fahrenheit 38 degrees Celsius A long line formed outside a civic center in Louisiana where people waited in cars to get bottled water, ice and tarps from police officers and volunteers.
Loretta Williams, 67, teased to describe the destruction of her mobile home and the roof of her car that she had covered with black tarps.
I'm crying everything all the time. I worked so hard for what I had, and it all disappeared overnight, Williams said.
Governor Edwards told the news conference he was pressing the U.S. government for help securing bulk fuel supplies while refineries were offline and other refineries were unable to supply fuels.
The critical port-fourchon oil industry hub of Port Fourchon remained cut off from delivery boats, fuel and air ferry services. Dozens of oil and gas companies operate in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which supplies 1.7 million barrels per day, or about 16% of the nation's oil production.
The state of Louisiana provides fuel for the rest of the country. We have to come back into Louisiana tonight after the rest of the country has gave up a little bit of fuel, Edwards said.
Asked what else he can ask Biden about during his visit on Friday, the governor said that Quite frankly the list is going to be very long We need all the help we can get. Although weakened, Ida's remnants combined with another front on Wednesday to bring heavy rain across a wide swath of Northeast.
The tornadoes that caused the storm ripped through parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, they showed images on social media. It is reported that at least nine homes were destroyed in the Philadelphia NBC 10 Television Station in Mullica Hill, New Jersey.
New York City also experienced flooding, with social media images showing water gushing into subway platforms and trains.
Subway service was extremely limited due to the flooding, said Metropolitan Transit Authority.
If you go to a train station, stay on it: the safest place to be is on the train unless you hear something from the conductor on Twitter.