US southern states recovering from Ida face new flooding threat
Parts of the southern United States still grappling with widespread power outages and water-logged homes in the aftermath of deadly Hurricane Ida are facing the threat of more flash floods from slow-moving rain and drenching thunderstorms, Al Jazeera reported.
Storms capable of producing five to eight centimetres (two to three inches) of rain “in a pretty short period of time” were saturating New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana and Mississippi on Monday, and were expected to continue into the evening, National Weather Service meteorologist Lara Pagano said.
The storm killed at least 13 in Louisiana, and more than 500,000 customers in the state remained without power on Monday, according to the PowerOutage.us website, which tracks power outages.
The US Coast Guard on Monday said it was probing nearly 350 reports of oil spills in and along the Gulf Coast in Ida’s wake.
New York had 17 confirmed deaths from Ida – four in suburban Westchester County and the rest in New York City. In New Jersey, there were at least 27 confirmed storm deaths and four people missing, a governor’s spokesperson said.