Haricane hits 18% of oil supply in U.S. Almost 600 Louisiana sites with toxic chemicals lie in Hurricane Ida's path

About two thirds of Louisiana industrial sites with toxic chemicals lie in the path of Hurricane Ida, a storm with the potential to batter or flood refineries, storage tanks and other infrastructure that can release oil and other harmful liquids and gases into communities and the environment.

Thousands of rescuers using boats, helicopters and trucks set about bringing hundreds of people to safety from flooded areas of Louisiana, USA, after storm surge and heavy rainfall from Hurricane Ida.

Hundreds of people evacuated their homes to avoid the storm. As of 30 August, over 2,200 evacuees were staying in 41 shelters, a number expected to rise as people were rescued or escaped flooded homes.

Hurricane Ida was blamed for 2 fatalities in Louisiana — a motorist who drowned after he attempted to drive through floodwater near the I-10 in New Orleans, and a person hit by a falling tree near Baton Rouge.

Wide areas of Louisiana and some coastal areas of Mississippi were flooded after storm surge and heavy rainfall of up to 15 inches (381 mm). In Louisiana, flooding was reported in areas of Grand Isle, Golden Meadow, LaPlace, Mandeville, Ponchatoula, Hammond, Algiers, Alliance, Slidell, Cocodrie, New Sarpy and Lafitte, among others. In Mississippi, the more significant flooding was reported in Gulfport, Biloxi and Bay St. Louis.

Governor Edwards suggested the flooding could have been much worse in Louisiana and many areas that saw catastrophic floods during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 were spared this time around due to the improved levee system.

“While this was an extremely catastrophic storm, if there is a silver lining our levee systems performed extremely well, particularly the hurricane risk reduction system in metro New Orleans. We don’t believe single levee was breached/failed,” the governor said...Heavy rain will continue through Friday from the Tennessee Valley into southern New England as Ida curves northeast. Considerable flash flood impacts are possible (especially in northern WV, western MD , & southern PA) as Ida brings widespread 2-6 to the region.