Louisiana residents have reported cases of alleged looting in the wake of Hurricane Ida amid fears crime could spiral in New Orleans and other cities after energy suppliers warned that power will be out for around three weeks as utility crews work to restore more than 2,000 miles of downed energy lines across the state.
New Orleans’ mayor also announced that the death toll from the storm has officially risen to two after a driver drowned in their vehicle in the city. On Sunday, a 60-year-old man died when a tree fell on a home just outside Baton Rouge. Authorities have not released any information about the identities of the victims.
Rescue crews in St. John the Baptist Parish reported that 800 people were rescued as internet and communications services began to come back online, though officials said that 18,000 residents in the parish remained without power as of late Monday.
Ida has been downgraded to a tropical depression. The National Hurricane Center said Ida’s maximum sustained winds had dropped to 35 mph by Monday afternoon as the storm’s remnants churned northwest of Jackson, Mississippi. Forecasters said heavy rain from Ida remains a threat as it moves northeast.
Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, said that 20 water rescues were staged in three counties on Monday. In total, some 85,000 Mississippians were without power as of late Monday.
In Alabama, at least three people were injured after an unconfirmed tornado believed to have been whipped up by feeder bands from Ida struck homes in Saraland, according to AL.com. Several buildings along US 43 suffered damage, and none of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries.
The hurricane center said the storm may dump as much as 8 inches of rain in central Mississippi through Tuesday.
And it could trigger flash flooding in parts of the Tennessee Valley, the Ohio Valley and the Mid-Atlantic later in the week.
Ida made landfall in Louisiana on Sunday, becoming the fifth most powerful hurricane to strike the United States.
A group of men were caught by a drone camera trying to rob an ATM machine in the scorched remains of a market in the New Orleans neighborhood of St. Claude.
In another incident, witnesses used their cell phone to record several people looting a store in New Orleans East.
Looters often take advantage of disasters like Ida and New Orleans is all too familiar with this as it became a hotbed of criminal activity in the wake of Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago.
However, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a press conference Monday that the city is cracking down on looting and all offenders will be charged with a state felony.
She said, ‘My directive has been very clear: lock ’em up. We will not tolerate and we have not tolerated it.’
Police Chief Shaun Ferguson added that the department deployed a group of ‘anti-looting’ officers and is working with the Louisiana National Guard to protect businesses from looters.
Cantrell noted that looting is nowhere near as bad as it may seem, stating, ‘there is no widespread looting going on in the city of New Orleans. What we do have that’s widespread are residents who are being neighbors, who are understand and exhibiting the spirit of humility, of empathy, who are cleaning up their lawns and who are servicing their community. That’s widespread in the city of New Orleans, that’s who we are.’
Nevertheless, the city has already made ‘several arrests’ involving looters, Ferguson said and urged residents to report looting when they see it.
‘It is also incumbent upon the community to lean in and lean forward and say this is not the time,’ he said. ‘Right now we are going through some trying times and we need to really pull ourselves through this together.’
So far, at least one person was taken into custody for looting the Dollar General in New Orleans East.
CBS News reporter Beau Zimmer posted the photos from the scene on Twitter, which revealed the interior of the trashed store and the parking lot outside littered by overturned shopping carts with merchandise spilling out of them.
See the video and read the rest here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9940331/New-Orleans-hit-LOOTING-wake-Hurricane-Ida-including-ATM-thieves-caught-DRONE.html
nothing new there