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After a powerful hurricane tore across Louisiana and plunged the state into prolonged darkness, utility Entergy launched a plan to harden its power network to withstand the devastating winds that had reached nearly 140 mph.
That storm was Hurricane Betsy in 1965, and despite billions in investments made over the following decades, Hurricane Ida still crumpled critical parts of the state's power infrastructure last week, causing outages that are slowing the recovery efforts from the type of hurricane that climate change is expected to make more deadly in the coming years.
Though the power remains out for more than 95% of St. Charles Parish residents and businesses after Hurricane Ida, the lights are now on in at least one community.
Power has been restored to Montz, a small neighborhood located on the western end of the parish’s east bank.
“It’s a glimmer of hope,” St. Charles Parish President Matthew Jewell said.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra visited New Orleans on Aug. 27 to raise attention to the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to end the spread of COVID-19 and its variants, as part of the White House “Build Back Better” policy. Becerra spoke alongside community leaders in New Orleans on ways to improve “vaccine confidence.”
The Louisiana death toll from Hurricane Ida rose to 13 when a 74-year-old New Orleans man perished, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Sunday.
Edwards also said a potential tropical storm system that sparked concerns Saturday has diminished.
"They don't see much chance for development as of today," the governor said, citing weather forecasters. "We are very thankful for that."
The disturbance is continuing to move north and east across the Gulf of Mexico with its eye on Louisiana.
Back at the end of July, Governor Jon Bel Edwards became the first Democratic governor in the United States to end enhanced unemployment benefits. According to CNN, the deal was a compromise to raise the regular benefit for those without a job in Louisiana by $28 to $275 per week. At the time, most of us assumed that we were emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of that (erroneous) assumption, it seemed to be a pretty good compromis
President Joe Biden visited Louisiana on Friday to survey damage from Hurricane Ida, after almost a week of the deadly storm ravaging the eastern half of the United States.
The President met with local leaders, surveyed some of the storm's damage and delivered remarks in LaPlace. He also participated in an aerial tour of some of the communities hardest-hit by the storm and met leaders in Lafourche Parish.
Student loan forgiveness has gotten a lot of attention this year, particularly from Democratic congressional leadership calling for much of the debt to be completely wiped out. That’s certainly of interest to the more than 43 million affected borrowers, who have $1.7 trillion in debt as of the second quarter.