Nearly 1 million customers without power as Hurricane Ida charges inland

A death has been attributed to Hurricane Ida in Louisiana.

According to the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office, an unnamed person died after a tree fell on them in Prairieville — about 65 miles northwest of New Orleans.

Deputies received reports of an injured person, the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook, and arrived at the scene shortly after 8:30 p.m. The person had died.

Authorities will not release the person’s identity until they notify family members, Allison Hudson, a spokeswoman for the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office, told The Washington Post — a process that has been delayed by the hurricane’s dangerous conditions.

“We haven’t been able to do that because we’re not sending anybody out due to the high winds right now,” she said.

Ascension Parish is part of Baton Rouge’s metropolitan area — a region expected to receive the worst of Hurricane Ida from at least Sunday night to 1 a.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

Hurricane Ida is slowly weakening, but remains a high-end Category 2 as of 11 p.m., with 105-mph winds. The storm is centered 30 miles east-southeast of Baton Rouge as it heads to the north at 9 mph.

“Although Ida has been inland over southeastern Louisiana for several hours, it is still a very well organized hurricane,” the National Hurricane Center wrote.

The storm’s core continues to slam New Orleans, with destructive winds and flooding rain; New Orleans International Airport clocked a wind gust of 90 mph just after 9:30 p.m.

Overnight, Ida will continue to weaken, probably to a tropical storm by morning. But, over the next several hours, it will be capable of damaging winds in Southeast Louisiana while very heavy rain and flooding continue there and in parts of southern Mississippi.

New Orleans has about two more hours of very strong winds and torrential rainfall, before downpours and gusty wind become more intermittent.

Heavy rain and strong wind will push north overnight along Interstate 55, the worst conditions on the east side of Baton Rouge continuing north and east into southwest Mississippi. Toward morning, the rain will spread over Jackson, Miss.

On Monday, much of central and northern Mississippi as well as western Alabama will receive heavy rain, with up to four to eight inches and areas of flooding.

By Monday afternoon and night, rain will spread into western and central Tennessee and northern Alabama, where areas of flooding could develop as a result of three to six inches or more of rainfall.

The rain will then focus in the Tennessee Valley on Tuesday before shifting into the Mid-Atlantic late Tuesday night into Wednesday.

With wind gusts topping 80 mph and power out citywide, sheets of rain are drenching New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana, causing flooding.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency, the most dire flood alert, for the south shore area of metro New Orleans.

“This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!” the Weather Service wrote.

In a separate special bulletin, the Weather Service reported that 4 to 8 inches of rain has fallen in the region and an additional 4 to 8 inches is expected.

“Observed rainfall rates over southeastern LA have generally been 1-2 in/hr through early evening, but rates over 2 in/hr have occasionally been observed as well,” the Weather Service wrote.

Flash flood warnings cover not only the New Orleans area but also Houma to the southwest and Slidell to the east. Gulfport, Miss., is also under a warning.

In New Orleans, the warning is in effect until 1 a.m. Eastern time (midnight local time) for “life-threatening flash flooding of creek and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses.”

The torrents come as Ida is positioned 30 miles west of New Orleans, headed to the northwest at 9 mph. The heaviest rain in the city should last for an additional two to three hours before the downpours become more intermittent overnight.

Ida slammed ashore near Port Fourchon in southeast Louisiana at 12:55 p.m. Sunday as a powerful Category 4 hurricane. At the time, its maximum sustained winds were 150 mph.

A ship at the location reported a sustained wind of 149 mph and gust to 172 mph.

Some early photos and video from Port Fourchon, about 100 miles south of New Orleans, and Lafourche Parish, within which it resides, show extensive damage. Many homes had roofs peeled off, walls were blasted through in some cases, and a marina was swamped.

Viral video showed the roof of the Lady of the Sea General Hospital ripped off in Galliano, also in the parish.

CNN reported another hospital in the parish was damaged and that all of its roads are impassable, according to its sheriff.

Here are some more scenes from the area:

More than 95 percent of current oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut down because of the storm, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement reported Sunday afternoon. It said that 288 production platforms, as well as all 11 drilling rigs in the gulf had been evacuated.

At least nine refineries — including those operated by Phillips 66, Shell, ExxonMobil and Valero — stopped or reduced their operations, the Energy Department announced. Chevron closed its terminals in Port Fourchon and Plaquemines Parish, La.

The Colonial Pipeline was shut down between the Gulf Coast and North Carolina, its operators said.

A six-day closure following a May cyberattack on the pipeline, which carries almost half the fuel consumed on the East Coast, led to panic gas buying and fuel shortages throughout the South, but the company said Sunday that there are sufficient supplies at terminals throughout the region to meet demand for now. The pipeline will continue to operate as usual between North Carolina and its terminal in New Jersey, the company said.

Colonial said it would resume full service once the storm has passed and the line has been checked for damage.

Petrochemical plants along the Gulf Coast are also expected to halt operations temporarily, energy analysts at Platts Analytics said in a statement.

Ida has weakened to a Category 3 hurricane as of 7 p.m., with peak winds of 125 mph, but it is now bringing New Orleans its most dangerous conditions yet.

In the past hour, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport reported sustained winds of 62 mph with gusts to 81 mph, while Lakefront Airport reported gusts of 86 mph.

“Folks on the south shore from St. John through Orleans Parishes need to be hunkered down in your “shelter within a shelter” — closet/bathroom w/ no windows,” tweeted the National Weather Service in New Orleans.

The high winds have triggered nearly 200,000 power outages in the area, as trees and wires have toppled. Shattered windows and structural damage have also been reported.

Ida made landfall Sunday at 12:55 p.m. near Port Fourchon, La., as a Category 4 storm with 150-mph winds.

At 7 p.m., Ida was still centered 30 miles southwest of New Orleans, slowly heading to the north at 10 mph.

Winds at current levels may last another several hours before easing after midnight. The New Orleans areas is also under a flash flood warning and radar indicates 4 to 5 inches of rain have already fallen with at least several more inches possible.

Here are some social media scenes from the city:

Hurricane Ida’s fierce winds ripped the roof off a hospital in coastal Lafourche Parish, a visceral indication of how the storm has collided with an already overburdened public health system.

Alyson Neel, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Health Department, said officials are “aware” and “working closely” with the Lady of the Sea General Hospital, about 25 miles southeast of Houma.

“Once it is safe to do so, they will evacuate their small number of patients,” she said. She said she could not immediately share more, calling it a “fluid situation.”

It is not clear how many people were inside the hospital.

Video showed the roof suddenly pulling up and tearing into pieces in the storm.

“Oh my god!” someone yells.

The Post could not reach the hospital Sunday evening, and the Louisiana Hospital Association did not immediately respond to an inquiry.

Residents of Lafourche Parish were ordered to evacuate. But fleeing Ida has been difficult for those in hospitals, with spiking coronavirus cases filling beds around the South.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) said earlier Sunday that “evacuating these large hospitals is not an option because there are not any other hospitals with the capacity to take them.”

“We were able to evacuate over 20 nursing homes and rehab facilities and behavioral facilities and those sorts of things,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “But when you think in terms of hospitals, it is just not possible.”

A flash flood “emergency” was declared Sunday evening in some communities south of New Orleans, near the Mississippi River, with officials warning of “life-threatening” conditions and a levee potentially being overwhelmed.

The emergency alert lasts until 11 p.m. local time and includes the communities of Dalcour and Braithwaite, about eight miles southeast of downtown New Orleans.

“EVACUATE!!!! SEEK HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY!!!!” the Plaquemines Parish government posted urgently on social media, saying there were reports of a levee “overtopping” — meaning water crested over it.

Almost 1 million people in New Orleans and surrounding cities are also under a flash flood warning through Sunday night. They are urged to move to higher ground.

While the flash flood emergency affects far fewer people right now — the National Weather Service said 80 people were exposed — their situation is more dire. Emergency alerts are issued in “exceedingly rare” circumstances, when heavy rain could be fatal and when “catastrophic damage” is happening or imminent, the National Weather Service says.