NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Car dealerships also sell beer on Bourbon Street and the well-known Cafe Du Monde sells beignet, fried breads coated with white sugar, although there are not many guests or locals to dine with.
Almost all the power returned to New Orleans about two weeks later Hurricane Ida when hit, the city is displaying signs returning to the 4th hurricane, which is said to have killed more than two dozen people in the state. Many businesses are open on a daily basis, oil is easy to find and many roads have large piles of garbage from clean-up work.
Thousands are still struggling without electricity and water outside the area, and government officials say the heat wave is causing health problems and problems. It took several weeks for the electricity to be restored, and many of the people who had been evacuated did not return.
“It will not be lost on anyone here in the government and not on our fellow citizens who are still suffering,” Governor John Bel Edwards said on Thursday. “While things are going well and we are grateful for this … a long recovery.”
Around New Orleans, residents are seeing signs that life is returning to normal after Ida. Philip Palumbo, who lives in the French Quarter and works in the open-air pub, said the time to reach the city that is being upgraded should help restaurants and bars that are trying to open to gain more customers.
“There’s not much here, but they’re back,” he said.
Electricity workers have reached a “major peak” in the New Orleans area by providing electricity to many customers, Phillip May, the state’s largest energy service provider, Entergy Louisiana, told a news conference Thursday. About 201,000 of the 205,000 Entergy customers, or 98%, now have power, the company said, with those who have not suffered much damage.
But more than 270,000 homes and businesses remained powerless, according to the Louisiana Public Service Commission. In Jefferson Parish, 46,000 homes and businesses are still without electricity, said May, but progress is being made in difficult areas including LaPlace, St. Petersburg. John the Baptist Parish where work has been restored to the hospital.
Some health care providers, which had COVID-19 cases even before Ida, are suffering. Officials at Ochsner Health System, Louisiana’s largest health care provider, think it will take about four weeks for its two damaged hospitals to function properly.
Across the region, “heat stroke is a major concern,” says Drs. Robert Hart, chief medical officer at Ochsner. Hart said emergency rooms have also seen a number of patients suffer from carbon monoxide, a problem that occurs after a severe storm when people use electric generators, sometimes indoors.
“Most of them didn’t need to be approved, thank you very much. But this is a good reason to keep reminding people to be careful with their generators,” he said.
In a bright light, Ochsner said the number of people treating COVID-19 has dropped dramatically. Ochsner had 486 COVID-19 patients Thursday, down from 1,074 last month, Warner Thomas said.
“We’ve continued to see a daily decline in the last few weeks,” Thomas said.
Around New Orleans, advances showcasing all of the restored lights and piles of debris running through several streets. As people return home they become wet mattresses, broken planks, wooden parts and other trash on the sidewalk. In the French Quarter, a large pile sat on the porch with a decorative metal frame.
In New Orleans, Gretna, Tiffany Scott and her family had a long pile of garbage on the sidewalk outside her home. Scott said it has become easier to find gas, ice and other items needed immediately after the storm.
“We’ve been through this before, so most of us are used to knowing that we have to get in the car and sit in line,” he said. But it is easy to get the essentials. ”
However, there is evidence that the city has some ongoing options for its recovery.
Sid Padil, visiting from San Francisco to inspect the oil and gas stations in Louisiana and Mississippi, said he was shocked by the destruction of the visible blue roofs when he arrived in New Orleans on Monday. He had trouble finding a place to eat, and after that, they were mostly local and seemed to be recovering, Padil said.
“I don’t see many visitors right now,” he said.
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Reeves said from Birmingham, Alabama. Associated Press reporters Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia, contributed to the report.