Nearly 1M still without power in US state of Louisiana in Ida aftermath

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Nearly 1 million people remain without power in Louisiana on Wednesday, three days after Hurricane Ida tore through the Gulf coast state.

There are more than 991,000 electricity customers who remain without power in the state of 4.6 million people, according to data from poweroutage.us, a website that tracks outages.

Temperatures in Louisiana and the region are expected to climb in the coming days with a heatwave that will bring the cultural capital of New Orleans to more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 C) on Thursday.

It will likely feel much hotter given the state's exceptionally high humidity.

Ida made landfall on Sunday as a devastating Category 4 hurricane, bringing with it mass flooding and damage that devastated wide swathes of the state. Damages are expected to cost tens of billions of dollars.

Line workers have been attempting to repair the energy grid but with little success. Demco, the state's power company, said outages would be "long-lasting."

US President Joe Biden will travel to New Orleans on Friday "to survey storm damage from Hurricane Ida and meet with State and local leaders from impacted communities," the White House announced in a statement.