Hurricane Ida death toll rises

Two people died Monday night when seven vehicles fell into a 20-foot deep hole along a collapsed highway near Lucedale, Miss. This brings the deaths in Mississippi and Louisiana to at least four people. Ida left more than one million homes and businesses in both states without power while some 441,000 people still have no access to water. Residents in New Orleans joined long lines on Tuesday outside the few gas stations waiting for fuel.

Any update on the restorations? New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said power company Entergy would be able to provide some power to the city by Wednesday evening, but noted the citywide restoration would still take time. Officials in the city turned 70 transit buses into cooling sites and planned to set up drive-thru food, water, and ice distribution points by Wednesday. Cantrell imposed a nighttime curfew on Tuesday to prevent crime as the city remained in darkness.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Jamie Dean’s report on New Orleans’ residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina.