Nearly a quarter of a million are without power days after Hurricane Issac hit The Gulf Coast. Officials are trying solve the power problem within the coming days. Thousands of evacuees remain at shelters or with friends or relatives. Recovery centers are being opened as this part of the US has to deal with another tragic hurricane. Click below to read more.
About a quarter of a million customers remained in the dark Monday in Louisiana and Mississippi, days after Isaac inundated the Gulf Coast with a deluge that still has some low-lying areas under water.
Most of those were in Louisiana, where utilities reported nearly 240,000 people without power as of Monday morning. More than 11,000 were without power in Mississippi. Another 5,000 or so were without power in Arkansas.
Thousands of evacuees remained at shelters or bunked with friends or relatives.
“My family is split up,” said Angela Serpas, from severely flooded Braithwaite in Plaquemines Parish. Serpas and her daughter were staying with her in-laws while her husband and son were staying in Belle Chasse, a suburban area of the parish.
“This is the second time we’ve lost our home. We lost it in Katrina,” she said.
Meanwhile, inspectors from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are out trying to get a handle on losses. FEMA opened a recovery center in Pascagoula, and officials say more centers could open in the coming days.
President Barack Obama was to visit Louisiana on Monday, a day ahead of the Democratic National Convention. He will meet with local officials, tour storm damage, and view response and recovery efforts before addressing reporters at Saint John the Baptist Parish, the White House said. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney visited the state Friday. Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, visited Bay St. Louis, Miss., and Slidell, La., on Sunday.
“We are part of a team to make sure Hurricane Isaac is put to rest as soon as we can for all those affected,” Napolitano said. “In the meantime, please know all of us are thinking about those in Louisiana who are without their homes or without their businesses.”
At least seven people were killed in the storm in the U.S. — five in Louisiana and two in Mississippi.
More than 2,800 people were registered at various state, local and Red Cross shelters in the state, down from around 4,000 earlier. State officials were uncertain how many people would eventually need longer-term temporary housing. Kevin Davis, head of the state’s emergency office, said that housing would likely include hotels at first, then rental homes as close as possible to their damaged property.
Progress was evident in many places. Workers continued their return to offshore oil and gas production platforms and drilling rigs, electricity came on for hundreds of thousands of people and the annual Southern Decadence Festival, a gay pride celebration, carried on in the French Quarter.
