Hurricane knocks out power in New Orleans
Coastal areas of Louisiana are suffering a catastrophic storm surge, and nearly one million people are without power, as Hurricane Ida tears through the state.
The US city of New Orleans has lost power, with only generators working, as Hurricane Ida batters the state of Louisiana.
Ida will test New Orleans flood defences - known as levees - which were strengthened after Hurricane Katrina killed 1,800 people in 2005.
Barry Keim is the Louisiana State Climatologist, based in Baton Rouge. He told Newsday the storm came ashore with winds of 150 miles per hour.
鈥淭o be perfectly frank it is downright frightening outside, watching the trees swaying back and forth, not knowing when a whole tree is going to come down. The wind is howling. We have wind-driven rain.鈥�
鈥淭he sheer power of it is amazing. But the toll it takes on society is just staggering. I love my hometown of New Orleans, but this is going to create quite a bit of misery across this region for several weeks.鈥�
鈥淪everal communities are being flooded, it doesn't bode well. They are talking about it taking up to 3 weeks to get everybody back with power.鈥�
But he said that the infrastructure built after Hurricane Katrina had 鈥渉eld up reasonably well鈥�.
Photo: A group of people cross a road in New Orleans, Louisiana (Getty Images)
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