Communities across the US trudge through the long recovery process more than a week after Hurricane Ida’s landfall
When it made landfall in Louisiana on August 29, Ida was a Category 4 hurricane; and though it weakened into a tropical depression as it reached the Northeast, it brought devastation to the region nonetheless.
“I’m just wondering where the help is,” St. Charles Parish resident Eric Mertz said Friday. “I don’t have air conditioning. No lights. I had Covid last year. I was in the ICU for 14 days, and I’m on oxygen (treatments now). And I don’t have no electricity — it’s rough.”
In Queens, New York, those impacted by the storm were seeking resources to help in the recovery Sunday. Some needed help getting their utilities back, some needed help with the water damage and others needed assistance with the emotional traumas.
“If you drive around Queens, it looks like a bomb went off. Everybody’s personal belongings are out on the street and we’ve seen what it looks like down south after a hurricane. This is what Queens looks like today. It’s horrible,” Queens resident Barbara Amarantinis told CNN.
Due to climate change, destruction like that seen in both the Gulf and East Coast from extreme weather will be “our new normal,” Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell warned Sunday.
“This is the crisis of our generation, these impacts that we are seeing from climate change, and we have to act now to try to protect against the future risks that we are going to face,” Criswell said during an interview on Fox Sunday morning.
Hundreds of thousands without electricity in Louisiana
In Louisiana, not only was the damage from the storm severe, but the impact on utilities has made it even harder for many parts of the state to recover.
The state still has a long way to go in its recovery process, and the biggest challenge is with electricity, Gov. John Bel Edwards said.
Responding to a reporter’s question, the governor said the electrical infrastructure does need to be strengthened. While the infrastructure will be hard pressed to withstand a storm as strong as Hurricane Ida, he said it does seem it needs to be strengthened to get closer to being able to.
Portions of Jefferson Parish experienced “more busted power poles (and) down utility lines than we’ve had in history” due to Hurricane Ida, said a Saturday update from Parish Councilman Dominick Impastato.
“There’s not a neighborhood that’s been spared, there’s not a street that’s been spared, there’s not a neighborhood that doesn’t have a massive amount of split power poles,” said Impastato.
Much of the US came to the aid of the state in the aftermath of Ida to help displaced people and restore downed utilities.
More than 30,000 linemen from 40 states were assisting with power restoration, Edwards said.
And as the region looks to get things back up and running, some officials are also looking ahead to changes that could be made in the future.
‘Once in a century storm’ hits the east
Paterson, New Jersey, Mayor André Sayegh lamented the destruction, telling CNN, “As if a once in a century virus wasn’t enough, we had a once in a century storm.”
In Paterson alone, about 300 people have been rescued, almost 100 cars were left abandoned throughout the city and 30 families were seeking refuge at emergency shelters Saturday, Sayegh said.
Many of the efforts at rescue have been strenuous, like the assistance of a man on the banks of the Passaic River near a bridge. Paterson Fire Chief Brian McDermott described how Paterson’s Metro Urban Strike Team drilled a hole in the concrete bridge, ploughing through several layers of rebar and corrugated steel to see through to the bottom of the bridge and eventually pull the man out.
“All while the storm is raging, the winds are raging, and we’re handling a third alarm fire. An ambulance trapped with people. A hundred fifty people calling for help and we’re only 8.4 square miles — that’s a lot going on,” McDermott said commenting on his team’s overall rescue operations.
In Elizabeth, New Jersey, a mother, father, and son died by drowning in their apartment building, officials said.
Rosa Espinal, 72, and her husband Jose Torres, 71, and their 38-year-old son Jose Torres died when more than a dozen feet of water drenched their apartment in a residential complex, city spokesperson Kelly Martins told CNN Friday. Their neighbor, 33-year-old Shakia Garrett, also drowned, Martins said
In New York, the initial assessment of the damage Ida left behind is estimated as at least $50 million, Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a news conference Sunday afternoon.
Displaced New Yorkers will be eligible for temporary housing assistance funds, unemployment assistance, legal services, crisis counseling and home repairs, she said.
CNN’s Polo Sandoval, Sara Jorgensen, Evan McMorris-Santoro, Linh Tran, Rick Hall, Jason Hoffman, Elizabeth Joseph and Melissa Alonso contributed to this report.