People wade into the water to evacuate their flooded home in LaPlace, La., on Aug. 30. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) warned Tuesday that evacuated residents should not return to their homes until officials say it's safe due to the damage Hurricane Ida caused.
Driving the news: More than 1 million customers in Louisiana and nearly 50,000 in Mississippi were still without power on Tuesday, according to PowerOutage.us.
What he's saying: "Many of the life-supporting infrastructure elements are not present, they’re not operating right now,” Edwards said at a press conference in LaPlace, Louisiana.
- "So if you have already evacuated, do not return here or elsewhere in southeast Louisiana until the office of emergency preparedness tells you it’s ready to receive you."
- "The schools are not open, the businesses are not open, the hospitals are slammed, there's no water in your home, and there's not going to be electricity," he said.
"Please don't come home until they tell you that it's time."
The big picture: Ida has caused two confirmed deaths so far, though Edwards added that he expects fatality numbers to rise.
- The power outages across eastern Louisiana from the storm are so extensive they are visible from space.
- To make matters worse, the National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for a large swath of the region for Tuesday and Wednesday as residents lack electricity to power air conditioning.
- NASA Earth said preliminary data suggests Ida was the fifth-strongest storm "ever to make landfall in the continental U.S." when it hit Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane Sunday.