Ida inflicts catastrophic damage on US states

Power supply make take months to be repaired

Dina Lewis rescues items from her home after it was destroyed by Hurricane Ida on August 30, 2021 in Laplace, Louisiana. Ida made landfall August 29 as a category 4 storm southwest of New Orleans. Picture: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Rescuers set out in hundreds of boats and helicopters to reach people trapped by floodwaters yesteday, and utility repair crews rushed in, after a furious Hurricane Ida swamped the Louisiana coast and ravaged the electrical grid in the stifling, late-summer heat.

Residents living amid the maze of rivers and bayous along the state’s Gulf Coast retreated desperately to their attics or roofs and posted their addresses on social media with instructions for search-and-rescue teams on where to find them.