Hurricane Ida power outages, misery persist 9 days later

By KEVIN McGILL and MELINDA DESLATTE
Associated Press

LaPLACE, La. (AP) — More than 400,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana still don’t have power nine days after Hurricane Ida. The state Public Service Commission said Tuesday that 98% of utility customers in the five hardest-hit parishes remain without electricity. In contrast, nearly all power has been restored in the capital city of Baton Rouge, and 75% of homes and businesses in New Orleans have power again. The power situation has improved greatly since Ida first hit. In the first hours after the storm, nearly 1.1 million customers were in the dark — including all of New Orleans. Hundreds of thousands of people also have had their water restored.