Hurricane Ida slams New Orleans on 16th anniversary of Katrina
30 August 2021
Hurricane Ida lashed New Orleans Sunday evening on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina — with part of the powerful Category 3 storm's eye wall pummeling the city with extremely heavy winds and rains.
What's happening: Officials confirmed that New Orleans had lost all power "due to catastrophic transmission damage" from the storm, with the only power in the city is coming from generators amid reports of flash flooding from Ida's rains. New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board told WWLTV that it had lost all three feeder lines" from energy provider Entergy.
The big picture via Axios' Andrew Freedman: Ida was stronger at landfall than Hurricane Katrina, but that 2005 storm was much larger. So it drove more water ashore, creating a towering storm surge.
- Ida was one of the major tests for the city's vast, new hurricane protection system, which was not in place 16 years ago when levees failed.
What they're saying: Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards noted on Sunday that the levee system would be tested, but added that "it was built for this moment."
Flashback: Unlike Ida, Katrina weakened before making landfall in Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005, as a Category 3 storm with 125 mph winds.
- More than 1,830 people died, and Katrina caused about $176 billion (in today's dollars) worth of damages — the costliest storm in U.S. history, per AP.
These side-by-side infrared images from @NOAA satellites show the two devastating landfalls of Hurricanes #Katrina and #Ida, which occurred #OnThisDay, exactly 16 years apart.
— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) August 29, 2021
*Note: Images are not on the same spatial scale. pic.twitter.com/eLRi6zTwg1
Go deeper:
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.