Category: Hurricanes_CN LOUISIANA_MN PATA_Hurricane_2022_related

With the vast majority of lights now on in New Orleans, city officials on Thursday were prepared for the next phase in navigating the aftermath of Hurricane Ida: recovery. The slow progress toward normalcy came even as the death toll from Ida continued to rise — an additional 11 deaths were confirmed by the state health department on Wednesday, bringing the count to at least 26 dead in Louisiana.

At least 48 people have died in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast as a result of flooding and tornadoes associated with Post-Tropical Cyclone Ida, and the toll continues to rise. Between its category 4 landfall in Louisiana, which killed at least 13, and its rampage through the eastern U.S., Ida has taken more than 60 lives, and it appears destined to go on the books as one of the deadliest and most destructive U.S. hurricanes of the 21^st century so far.

A stunned U.S. East Coast faced a rising death toll, surging rivers and tornado damage Thursday after the remnants of Hurricane Ida walloped the region with record-breaking rain, drowning more than 40 people in their homes and cars. In a region that had been warned about potentially deadly flash flooding but hadn’t braced for such a blow from the no-longer-hurricane, the storm killed at least 46 people from Maryland to Connecticut on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Some of the worst urban flash flooding in U.S. history struck the New York City area on Wednesday night, as the remnants of once-category 4 Hurricane Ida teamed up with a frontal zone, upper-level energy, and an influx of tropical moisture to dump historic rains across the Northeast. Countless homes and businesses were flooded, some severely, and the nation’s largest city was brought to a virtual standstill, with scenes that seemed drawn from an apocalyptic future.

Three days after Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana, its weakened remnants tore into the Northeast and claimed at least 43 lives across New York, New Jersey and two other states in an onslaught that ended Thursday and served as an ominous sign of climate change’s capacity to wreak new kinds of havoc.

Hurricane Ida, which on Sunday struck the coast of Louisiana near Port Fourchon as a very strong Category 4 storm, will teach us many lessons. The first is the hardest to acknowledge: No matter what you spend in vulnerable coastal areas, you can’t protect everything from every storm.

Hurricane Ida’s lashing of Louisiana is supercharging a fight in Washington over spending tens of billions of dollars to protect the U.S. from future storms.