LAPLACE, La. — Across St. John the Baptist Parish, the damage from Hurricane Ida feels endless.
“It flooded two feet in the house,” Chad Perilloux said. “Destroyed the house. I’m 60. I’ve never seen a storm like this. LaPlace looks like it’s been hit by a bomb.”
More than a week after Hurricane Ida, debris litters the streets, left behind afte the storm’s punishing winds.
As of Tuesday night, nearly all of the parish remained in the dark.
Right now, 94% of the parish is still without power. Many neighborhoods have downed power lines everywhere.
Joseph Haywood is one of more than 18,000 in the parish without power. Entergy says more than 2,200 poles were broken and at least 370 transformers were damaged.
“It’s like a war zone. I just can’t believe this is my town,” Haywood said. “Total devastation. If you drive around LaPlace — just total devastation.”
There was a bit of hope on Tuesday when bits of the parish started to light up green on the Entergy outage map. The map showed Glenn Brown’s home had power, but he didn’t.
“It’s just a big burden on my wife, you know? Because of the heat,” he said.
Entergy says the confusion with the outage map is because of connectivity issues which has led to delays in the power status available on the map.
There were a few flashing lights off of Airline, the only sign of power in the parish.
“I did not hear of anyone in this area getting power back,” Perilloux said.
Crews are working throughout the parish. Entergy says they are prioritizing critical infrastructure like hospitals and police stations. The estimated restoration is Sept. 17.
Somehow, Haywood is finding a way to stay optimistic.
“I am one that understands — there are going to be setbacks,” he said. “Just deal with it and eventually we will all be back to normal … everyday, it gets a little better and we will be back.”