Billy
Nunguesser, the Lt. Governor of Louisiana, compared the damage being caused by
Hurricane Ida and the one caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and said that it
looked like it was going to be rough for the southern end.

“I believe
it is going to be every bit as bad as Katrina,” he said while talking to
ABC News about the situation in the state after the landfall.

 Nunguesser said that the flooding situation
due to the Hurricane is already cataclysmic, and the levees near Myrtle Grove
and other places were either breached or topped by water. The lieutenant
governor expressed his special concern about Plaquemines Parish, due to the
area housing oil and gas-related infrastructure.

Nunguesser
also talked about the reports of a giant floating platform on which oil workers
live coming unmoored and floating somewhere in Barataria Bay.

On the other hand, the state’s governor John Bel Edwards said that the first responders are so
overwhelmed that they will likely not be able to respond to calls until
daybreak on Monday.

“I
have no doubt we are going to see extreme devastation in Grand Isle and
elsewhere. Over 15,000 people are in shelters across the state,” he was quoted
by ABC News as saying.

The
Governor said that sixty-one intermediate care facilities, 22 nursing homes and
18 assisted living facilities have been evacuated due to the Hurricane, but fortunately
no “tier one” hospitals have had to be evacuated.

According
to a report by ABC News, at least 442,925 customers in Louisiana are without
power as of 5 pm ET.

According
to Edwards, the power outages in the state are his biggest concern due to the
impact these will have on the hospitals in the middle of the pandemic.

“I
understand that generators are great, but over time they tend to fail,” he
said.

US President
Joe Biden promised he was going to “put the country’s full might behind
the rescue and recovery.”