Ida caused widespread damage and flooding throughout New Orleans

New Orleans, August 30 (RHC)-- Hurricane Ida made landfall on Sunday as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States, lashing the country’s southwestern coast with fierce winds, torrential downpours and pounding surf that submerged much of the shoreline in the state of Louisiana.

All of New Orleans, Louisiana’s most populous city, had power knocked out due to “catastrophic transmission damage”, the local utility reported on Sunday.

}At least one person died after being injured by a fallen tree in Prairieville, 130km (60 miles) northwest of New Orleans, according to the sheriff’s office.   

Ida, a Category 4 storm, hit on the same date Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 storm, ravaged the southern states of Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier.  It dropped hours later to a Category 2 storm with maximum winds of 165km/h (105mph) as it crawled inland, its eye about 65km (40 miles) west-northwest of New Orleans.