By: Vivienne Wellet

Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana on Sunday August 15, 2021 as a category 4 hurricane.They say it was the strongest hurricane they have had since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Katrina was a category 5 hurricane with over 1,000 deaths and over 1.5 billion dollars in damage. More than 1 million homes have not had power since the beginning of Hurricane Ida. Hurricane Ida had strong winds that were 150 mph and flash floods. 

     They had told everyone that had ‘’not evacuated to stay inside so they were safe’’ said the utility companies. Although it was a category 4 hurricane,it slowly moved down to a 3, but still had winds of 120 with flash flooding. Though they do not know how many exactly died from recent news, there were about 5 deaths. The storm much later turned into a tropical depression according to news. According to officials, people won’t have electricity for about a month because of how much damage there is. 

    They also had told people if they evacuated, not to come home immediately because of flooding, debris covering all of the roads, and power line outages. Since Hurricane Ida hit, food, water, gas and other supplies were and are limited. Grocery stores are closed or destroyed and you have to wait at least 2-4 hours for gas.  Many search and rescue officers couldn’t help the community during the storm because of their safety so they had to wait until it was safe. Now they have begun helping the community by searching for people that were stuck for days in their destroyed homes and other debris. 

    Now, since the storm has passed Louisiana, people have been trying to clean debris, fix the internet, and many other things. There will probably be many difficulties trying to recover , but eventually everything will return to normal. According to the Mayor of New Orleans, LaToya Cantrell, there will be a new curfew of 8:00pm-6:00am because of looting. Hopefully everyone that did not evacuate will be safe and clean their homes and the city of New Orleans, everywhere else Hurricane Ida had hit.

Image from CNN