NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Ida's winds have brought down more trees and powerlines than any other storm in recent memory, officials have said. The electric grid throughout the New Orleans Metro Area was more damaged Monday morning than it was after Hurricane Katrina, 16 years prior.
Hurricane Ida's winds were strong enough to uproot trees, and in New Orleans East one of those uprooted trees broke a watermain, pulling it from the ground.
Most of the New Orleans Metro Area will be without power for weeks and water for days due to infrastructure damage from Hurricane Ida.
Residents near the watermain break used buckets to collect groundwater from the roadway near the break because access to water won't be restored for some time.
Entergy New Orleans' CEO and President Deanna Rodriguez was on the Eyewitness Morning News to talk about the status of power in the New Orleans metro area. Here are the highlights of what she had to say.
- Crews out today starting at daybreak to assess damage
- Need to know full extent of damage before proceeding
- Crews having to take caution for their safety
- Transmission tower that survived Katrina was knocked down into river
- That tower is only one path to get power out, there are alternatives
- No timeline for restoration yet
- Need to assess the damage and how best to get people back up quickly
- Other lines may be damaged, but maybe not to extent of downed line
- “It won’t be done overnight, but that’s one tower”
Rodriguez said," We don't know exactly the damage the wind and rains have caused, still trying to figure out exactly what damage has been done."
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.