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Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards is urging residents to stay put as Hurricane Ida continues to make its way through the southeast. In a series of tweets, Edwards let residents know that the hurricane had left many roads compromised with excess debris.
"As the sun comes out this morning, please remain where you are. Ida has left many hazards across Louisiana including flooded roadways, debris [and] downed powerlines. Follow the instructions of local officials [and] continue to be safe," he tweeted.
"As of this moment, the state has deployed more than 1,600 personnel to conduct search and rescue across Louisiana."
Many areas across the state of Louisiana continue to assess the damage as Hurricane Ida moves toward middle Tennessee later this evening. Thus far, Power Outage reports that more than one million businesses and homes in Louisiana have lost power. In addition, another 100,000 homes and businesses have lost power throughout the state of Mississippi. Most notably, Entergy New Orleans, an energy provider with more than 200,000 customers, was shut down due to "catastrophic damage."
"Hurricane Ida’s intensity has caused catastrophic damage in its path, including a load imbalance to the company’s transmission and generation. We’re making every effort to learn more and rectify," the company tweeted.
"It will likely take days to determine the extent of damage to our power grid in metro New Orleans and far longer to restore electrical transmission to the region."
After causing damage throughout Mississippi and Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center downgraded Ida to a Tropical Storm. However, it still poses a threat to portions of Tennessee as it moves north. In March, the NOAA reported that four people died due to flooding. More recently, WSMV in Nashville reported that nearly two dozen people died due to flooding in rural Tennessee last week.
"Rainfall totals 3-4" are expected for nearly everyone, with isolated areas potentially seeing slightly higher totals. A Flash Flood Watch goes into effect at 7 p.m. Monday until 1 a.m. Wednesday," Nashville-based meteorologist Greg Bobos stated.
"The chance for severe weather across Middle Tennessee also cannot be ruled out. We are in a category 1 out of 5 for severe weather on Monday as the storms begin to approach. Strong wind, heavy downpours and possible spin-up tornadoes are threats to be watched for closely when the storm arrives."
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