Hurricane Ida: Death toll soars to 46 as 900,000 left without power and water

At least 46 people were killed in the Gulf and northeast US, including several who died in the basement of their houses in New York area, as Hurricane Ida and its remnants wreaked uninterrupted destruction on several states in its path.

The fifth strongest hurricane storm ever and termed as a historic climate crisis event by authorities, Ida has left nearly tens of thousands impacted with no power and water connection, even as it showed signs of weakening after five days.

Major stretches across New Jersey and New York boroughs, including Manhattan, The Bronx and Queens, were closed due to flooding, forcing the fire department to rescue hundreds of people.

Videos shared on social media showed landmark roads with cars half-submerged and even floating in the water, trucks wading through, and flood water gushing inside apartments in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The intense flooding also filled the New York subway with rainfall water which poured over trains entering the station as commuters waded through knee-deep water. At least 17 trains were trapped and subway services at the station remained impacted throughout the day, AP reported.

The remnants of the storm have caused damage worth tens of billions of dollars as it ripped through parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey on Wednesday. In his White House speech, President Joe Biden said: “These extreme storms, and the climate crisis, are here. We must be better prepared. We need to act.”

Describing the pouring to be at par with the Niagara Falls, New York governor Kathy Hochul and city mayor Bill De Blasio said that the storm’s strength took the New York administration by surprise.

Ms Hochul, who took charge of the city from former head Andrew Cuomo last week, said: “We did not know that between 8.50pm and 9.50pm last night, that the heavens would literally open up and bring Niagara Falls level of water to the streets of New York.”

The president has assured Northeast residents that federal first responders were on the ground to help clean up.

Mr Biden is set to visit the storm-battered Louisiana on Friday for surveying the extent of damage as he promised complete federal support to the affected areas in the Gulf coast and northeast region.

His visit comes ahead of the four deaths at a nursing home — out of which three have been described as storm-related — in the state where the conditions reportedly became unhealthy and unsafe, forcing people to be shifted to a warehouse in Independence. An investigation has been launched into the deaths after health officials received reports of people lying on mattresses on the floor, not being fed or changed and not being socially distanced to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

A day earlier, Biden said Louisiana experienced flooding that was less than what Hurricane Katrina unleashed 16 years ago during Hurricane Katrina.

About 900,000 people in Louisiana, including much of New Orleans, remained without power and tens of thousands had no water in the midst of a sultry stretch of summer. Efforts continued to drain flooded communities, and lines for gas stretched for blocks in many places from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.

Promising deliverable response on the administration’s part, Mr Biden said: “We need to get power restored. We need to get more food, fuel and water deployed.”

The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed that at least 10 tornadoes were spawned by the storm from Maryland to Massachusetts, with one ferocious twister moving at the speed of 150-mph (241 kph) twister, ravaging homes in Mullica Hill, New Jersey, south of Philadelphia.

The weather body had issued the first-ever emergency flash flood warning on Thursday. “This emergency was issued due to the ongoing life threatening flash flooding. The heaviest rain has pushed east of the Flash Flood Emergency area, with more moderate rainfall the next few hours,” said the New York branch of NWS.