City of New Orleans delivers first post-Ida update

New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell is expected to morning on the state of rescue and recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WGNO) – New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell is expected to speak at 11:30 a.m. this morning on the state of rescue and recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

New Orleans residents are among the one million people without power today after the storm. Earlier this morning, Entergy confirmed that the only power in New Orleans was coming from generators, the city’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness tweeted, citing “catastrophic transmission damage.” The city relies on Entergy for backup power for the pumps that send stormwater over the city’s levees. The system is much-improved since Katrina, but Ida is posing its biggest test since that disaster.

The 911 system in Orleans Parish also experienced technical difficulties early Monday. Anyone needing emergency assistance was urged to go to their nearest fire station or approach their nearest officer, the New Orleans Emergency Communications Center tweeted.

Ida made landfall on the same day 16 years earlier that Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi, and its 150 mph (230 kph) winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland. It was already blamed for one death, someone hit by a falling tree in Prairieville, outside Baton Rouge, deputies with the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Sunday.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)