Hurricane Zeta slammed into the storm-weary Gulf coast on Wednesday, pelting the New Orleans metro area with rain and howling winds that ripped apart buildings, knocked out power to thousands and threatened to push up to 9ft of sea water inland in a region already pounded by multiple storms this year.
The storm killed at least one person, a 55-year-old man who a Louisiana coroner said was electrocuted by a downed power line, and officials said life-threatening conditions would last into Thursday.
Guy McInnis, the president of St Bernard Parish, said emergency workers were doing their best to respond to reports of people in distress after their roofs were blown off.
Guys, we received the brunt of Zeta, and Zeta gave us a good punch, McInnis told WDSU-TV.
The storm made landfall late on Wednesday afternoon as a powerful category two storm, striking the latest blow of an extraordinarily busy Atlantic tropical storm season.
The storms this season have so far veered away from New Orleans, but this time the low-lying city appeared squarely in the hurricane’s path.
Roads were flooded near the coast, where forecasters said Zeta made landfall around Terrebone Bay near Cocodrie, an unincorporated fishing village at the end of a highway with few if any full-time residents and a marine laboratory where a building was inundated.
Streams of rainfall ran off roofs in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter, signs outside bars and restaurants swayed back and forth in the wind and palm trees along Canal Street whipped furiously. Officials said a person was hospitalized with minor injuries after a structure collapsed, but further details weren’t available.
With much of the city in the dark and more than 200 trees reported down, the New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell implored residents to stay home and let city officials assess the damage instead of going out and doing it themselves.
Although we have made it through, we have been damaged, we have been hit, she said.
In Bay St Louis in Mississippi, former mayor Les Fillingame said Hurricane Zeta was very intense when it blew through.
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It was a noisy storm. It was a truly howling wind, he said. But, thankfully, it was also fast-moving. It was a lot of wind for several hours which is enough.
On Wednesday night, Donald Trump declared an emergency in Mississippi and ordered federal assistance be expedited to aid state, local and tribal efforts to recover from the hurricane.
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