Hurricane Ida leaves at least 1 dead and more than a million without power as it slows to a near stop over Louisiana

(CNN) – Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana with devastating force as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, leaving at least one person dead and more than 1 million customers without power, as it flooded homes, ripped off roofs and trapped residents in dangerous flooding.

In Jean Lafitte, south of New Orleans, levees overflowed and residents were on their rooftops, waiting for rescue boats to arrive, said Mayor Tim Kerner Jr.

“We’re going to make sure we have as many boats as possible,” to help with the rescues, he said, adding that the boats were ready to go in as soon as the weather broke. “It really breaks your heart when you meet those people and you can’t reach them.”

After making landfall on Sunday, Ida has now nearly crawled over Louisiana as a Category 1 storm, causing flash flood emergencies by dumping hundreds of millimeters of rain into the southeastern part of the state.

Making landfall on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Ida is already historic in its own right. The storm is now linked to last year’s Hurricane Laura and 1856’s Last Island Hurricane as the strongest storm in the state.

As of early Monday, more than a million customers in Louisiana were without power, according to PowerOutage.US. Among them is the entire Orleans district, which was hit by “catastrophic transmission damage,” the mayor’s office said in a Tweet Sunday night.

As Ida continues to push the coast, Entergy Louisiana said Sunday that some of its customers could be without power for weeks. And storm surge of up to 15 feet and winds as strong as 240 km / h could leave parts of southeastern Louisiana “uninhabitable for weeks or months,” according to a local hurricane release from the United States. National Weather Service in New Orleans.

While the extent of the damage won’t be clear until dawn and teams can assess the chaos, initial reports indicate that the situation for many residents left behind is dire.

The Jefferson district has received calls from people asking for help when the water rises to their chests in their homes, district president Cynthia Lee Sheng told CNN on Sunday night. But with high winds, flooding and reports of hazards, including downed power lines and uprooted trees, Sheng said dangerous conditions have prevented emergency crews from helping.

And Ida has a lot of strength left. The hurricane turns north over southeastern Louisiana, with sustained winds of 152 km / h. The storm is weakening very slowly and will likely continue to batter the southeast coast and lower Mississippi Valley with heavy rains during the early hours of the morning, according to CNN meteorologist Michael Guy. The region could receive 250 to 600 millimeters of rain, which could lead to sudden, life-threatening urban floods.

Tornadoes will continue to be a threat to the Gulf Coast through Monday, with the threat expanding to central and northern Mississippi and Alabama.

The storm is expected to turn northeast on Monday and head toward the middle of the Tennessee Valley and the Upper Ohio Valley through Wednesday. Until then, Louisiana will bear the brunt of the rain, flooding, and wind.

“I have not seen a relentless wind [como este] in my life, “St. Bernard District President Guy McInnis told CNN.

Roads closed and hospitals damaged

The storm has also affected access for rescuers to enter and residents to exit.

The Kerner swing bridge in the Jefferson district was hit by a barge Sunday when Ida struck Louisiana, according to the district government, prompting officials to warn residents that it may not be safe to cross.

“All residents still in Lafitte are advised not to attempt to drive over this bridge. We do not believe it is structurally safe.” tweeted the Jefferson district.

And due to falling trees on the road, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development closed about 35 km of Interstate 10, a major thoroughfare that runs through the state from east to west.

The closed portion of the highway runs from Louisiana Highway 73, near Dutch Town, Louisiana, to Louisiana Highway 641, near Gramercy, Louisiana.

In the Lafourche district, all roads were impassable Sunday night, Sheriff Craig Webre told CNN.

There is a curfew in the Lafourche district, “and we are going to establish checkpoints to aggressively enforce that curfew,” the sheriff said.

Officials plan to survey the district with all available county employees in the morning, but with power outages, downed power lines and strewn debris, Webre doesn’t see any opportunity to clear roads Sunday night that allow travel. before dawn.

Two of the three hospitals in the Lafourche district suffered damage in Sunday’s epic storm, the sheriff added.

A portion of the roof of the Lady of the Sea General Hospital in Galliano was ripped off when Ida made landfall, Webre told CNN’s Pamela Brown. The county was also forced to move its emergency operations center to a different building after the roof of the first building began to leak Sunday, Webre told CNN.

Governor asks for help with ‘one of the strongest storms to ever hit Louisiana’

Once the storm subsides, there are 21 urban search and rescue teams from about 15 states ready to search, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told CNN Sunday.

“At the height of a hurricane, you can’t get rescuers out because it’s just too dangerous. The wind speed doesn’t allow it,” he explained. “As soon as we can, we will participate in very robust search and rescue operations.”

Edwards said he anticipated the storm would continue to cause damage throughout the night, noting that it had not yet reached I-10 and that the expected wind and rain, which could be 500 to 600 millimeters in some areas, will likely cause more damage in the state.

“It’s tough all over southeast Louisiana,” he said, adding “This is a very devastating storm.”

On Sunday night, President Joe Biden granted Edwards’s request a major disaster declaration, directing federal agencies to complement state and local recovery efforts.

Edwards applied for federal public assistance related to emergency protective actions, shelters and temporary housing costs, his office said.

A request for federal assistance for debris removal and infrastructure damage was also included, according to the press release.

“Hurricane Ida is one of the strongest storms to ever hit Louisiana,” Edwards said in a news release Sunday, highlighting the urgency of the statement.

CNN’s Michael Guy, Joe Sutton, Hollie Silverman, Keith Allen, Gregory Lemos, Dave Hennen, Paul P. Murphy, and Chris Boyette contributed to this report.