NEW ORLEANS: Rescuers in boats, helicopters and high-water trucks brought people trapped by Hurricane Ida’s floodwaters to safety Monday and utility repair crews rushed in, after the furious storm swamped the Louisiana coast and ravaged the electrical grid in the stifling, late-summer heat.
Residents living amid the maze of rivers and bayous along the state’s Gulf Coast retreated desperately to their attics or roofs and posted their addresses on social media with instructions for search-and-rescue teams on where to find them.
More than 1 million homes and businesses in Louisiana and Mississippi — including all of New Orleans — were left without power as Ida, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the US mainland, pushed through on Sunday.
The damage was so extensive that officials warned it could be weeks before the power grid was repaired.
As the storm was downgraded to a tropical depression Monday afternoon and continued to make its way inland with torrential rain, it was blamed for at least two deaths — a motorist who drowned in New Orleans and a person hit by a falling tree outside Baton Rouge.
But with many roads impassable and cellphone service out in places, the full extent of its fury was still coming into focus. Christina Stephens, a spokesperson for Gov. John Bel Edwards, said that given the level of destruction, “We’re going to have many more confirmed fatalities.”
The governor’s office said damage to the power grid appeared “catastrophic” — dispiriting news for those without refrigeration or air conditioning during the dog days of summer, with highs forecast in the mid-80s to near 90 by midweek.
“There are certainly more questions than answers. I can’t tell you when the power is going to be restored. I can’t tell you when all the debris is going to be cleaned up and repairs made,” Edwards told a news conference. “But what I can tell you is we are going to work hard every day to deliver as much assistance as we can.”
In hard-hit LaPlace, squeezed between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, rescuers saved people from flooded homes in a near-constant operation.
Debbie Greco, her husband and son rode out the storm in LaPlace with Greco’s parents. Water reached the first-floor windows, then knocked down the back door and filled the brick home with 4 feet of water. They retreated to the second floor, but then screaming winds collapsed the roof.
They were finally rescued by boat after waiting in the only dry spot, five people sharing the landing on the stairs.
“When I rebuild this I’m out of here. I’m done with Louisiana,” said Greco’s father, 85-year-old Fred Carmouche, a lifelong resident.
Elsewhere in LaPlace, people pulled pieces of chimneys, gutters and other parts of their homes to the curb and residents of a mobile home park waded through floodwaters.
In just three parishes, 191 people and 27 pets had been rescued by Monday afternoon, Edwards said.
The hurricane blew ashore on the 16th anniversary of Katrina, the 2005 storm that breached New Orleans’ levees, devastated the city and was blamed for 1,800 deaths.
This time, New Orleans appeared to escape the catastrophic flooding city officials had feared.
Stephanie Blaise returned to her home with her father in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward after evacuating. The neighborhood suffered devastating flooding in Katrina, but only lost some shingles in Idaho However, with no idea when electricity would be restored, Blaise didn’t plan to stay long.
“We don’t need to go through that. I’m going to have to convince him to leave. We got to go somewhere. Can’t stay in this heat,” she said.
The city urged people who evacuated to stay away for at least a couple of days because of the lack of power and fuel. “There’s not a lot of reasons to come back,” said Collin Arnold, chief of emergency preparedness.
Also, 18 water systems serving about 255,000 customers in Louisiana were knocked out of service, the state Health Department said.
Four Louisiana hospitals were damaged and 39 medical facilities were operating on generator power, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said. Officials said they were evacuating scores of patients to other cities.
The governor’s office said over 2,200 evacuees were staying in 41 shelters, a number expected to rise as people were rescued or escaped flooded homes. The governor’s spokesperson said the state will work to move people to hotels as soon as possible so they can keep their distance from one another.
“This is a COVID nightmare,” Stephens said, adding: “We do anticipate that we could see some COVID spikes related to this.”
Preliminary measurements showed Slidell, Louisiana, got at least 15.7 inches of rain, while New Orleans received nearly 14 inches, forecasters said. Other parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, Alabama and Florida got 5 to 11 inches.
The Louisiana National Guard said it activated 4,900 Guard personnel and lined up 195 high-water vehicles, 73 rescue boats and 34 helicopters. Local and state agencies were adding hundreds more. Edwards said he decided not to tour hurricane damage by air Monday to add one more aircraft to the effort.
On Grand Isle, the 40 people who stayed on the barrier island through the brunt of the hurricane gave aircraft checking on them Monday a thumbs-up, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto said.
The road to the island remained impassable and rescuers would try to reach them as soon as they are able, the sheriff said.
The hurricane twisted and collapsed a giant tower that carries key transmission lines over the Mississippi River to the New Orleans area, causing widespread outages, Entergy and local authorities said. The power company said more than 2,000 miles of transmission lines were out of service, along with 216 substations. The tower had survived Katrina.
The storm also flattened utility poles, toppled trees onto power lines and caused transformers to explode.
The governor said 25,000 utility workers were in the state to help restore electricity, with more on the way. “We’re going to push Entergy to restore power just as soon as they can,” Edwards said.
AT&T said its wireless network in Louisiana was reduced to 60 percent of normal but was coming back. Many people resorted to using walkie-talkies. The governor’s office staff had no working phones. The company sent a mobile tower to the state’s emergency preparedness office so it could get some service.
Charchar Chaffold left her home near LaPlace for Alabama after a tree fell on it Sunday. She frantically tried to get in touch via text message with five family members who stayed behind.
She last heard from them Sunday night. They were in the attic after water rushed into their home. “They told me they thought they was going to die. I told them they are not and called for help,” she said.
Ida’s 150 mph (230 kph) winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane ever to hit the mainland. Its winds were down to 40 mph (64 kph) around midday Monday.
In Mississippi’s southwestern corner, entire neighborhoods were surrounded by floodwaters, and many roads were impassable. Several tornadoes were reported, including a suspected twister in Saraland, Alabama, that ripped part of the roof off a motel and flipped an 18-wheeler, injuring the driver, according to the National Weather Service.
Ida was expected to pick up speed Monday night before dumping rain on the Tennessee and Ohio River valleys Tuesday, the Appalachian mountain region Wednesday and the nation’s capital on Thursday.
Forecasters said flash flooding and mudslides were possible along Ida’s path before it blows out to sea over New England on Friday.
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Reeves reported from LaPlace, Louisiana. Associated Press writers Janet McConnaughey and Kevin McGill in New Orleans; Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge; Michael Biesecker in Washington; Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
Hurricane Ida traps Louisianans, shatters the power grid
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Hurricane Ida traps Louisianans, shatters the power grid
Poland raids Russian spy network targeting EU
- The services said their operations were linked to charges filed earlier this year against a Polish citizen suspected of spying for Russia
- The Internal Security Agency is conducting activities as part of an investigation into espionage activities for Russia directed against European Union countries and institutions
WARSAW: Polish security services said Thursday they had raided a Russian spy network in cooperation with Czech intelligence, which a day earlier had busted a major Russian propaganda network.
The services said their operations were linked to charges filed earlier this year against a Polish citizen suspected of spying for Russia.
“The Internal Security Agency is conducting activities as part of an investigation into espionage activities for Russia directed against European Union countries and institutions,” agency spokesman Jacek Dobrzynski said on social media.
He added in a statement that the agency had carried out raids in the capital Warsaw and the southern city of Tychy and interrogations in connection with the case.
He said the spy network’s “goal was to implement the Kremlin’s foreign policy objectives, including weakening Poland’s position on the world stage, discrediting Ukraine as well as the image of EU organs.”
“The operations carried out are the result of the agency’s international cooperation with a number of European services, coordinated in particular with Czech partners.”
Dobrzynski added that the security agency’s operations began from an investigation that in January resulted in charges against a Polish citizen suspected of Russian espionage.
“The man, embedded in Polish and EU parliament circles, carried out tasks commissioned and financed by colleagues from Russian intelligence,” he said in the statement.
These tasks notably included “propaganda activity, disinformation as well as political provocation. Their objective was to build Russian spheres of influence in Europe.”
The security agency has not revealed the man’s identity.
The Czech Republic announced on Wednesday that it had busted a Moscow-financed network that spread Russian propaganda and wielded influence across Europe, including in the European Parliament.
Prague said the group used the Prague-based Voice of Europe news site to spread information seeking to discourage the European Union from sending aid to Ukraine, which has been battling a Russian invasion since February 2022.
The Czech government has added the Voice of Europe and two pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politicians — Viktor Medvedchuk and Artem Marchevsky — to its sanctions list in relation to the network’s activities.
The Denik N daily said the news site had published statements by politicians demanding the EU halt aid to Ukraine.
Some European politicians cooperating with the news site were paid from Russian funds that in some cases also covered their 2024 EU election campaign, the daily adds.
The payments targeted politicians from Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland, Denik N said, citing a Czech foreign ministry source.
Asked about the network, a spokeswoman for the German interior ministry said “this case is another example of Russia’s extensive and wide-ranging influence activities.”
“The Federal Republic of Germany also remains an important target of Russian influence operations,” she told AFP.
“The German security authorities will continue to use all available means and in cooperation with their foreign partners to investigate such influence operations and take measures to prevent them.”
Moscow attack death toll rises to 143: authorities
- By Wednesday afternoon, 80 people injured in the attack, including six children, remained in hospital
- The previous day that many people in shock had initially not returned to the hospital for treatment
MOSCOW: The death toll from the attack on a Moscow concert hall claimed by Islamic extremists rose on Wednesday to 143, Russian authorities said.
Authorities listed the names of the dead on the Russian ministry for civil defense and emergency situations five days after last Friday’s attack, the deadliest claimed to date by Daesh on European soil and the worst in Russia in two decades.
By Wednesday afternoon, 80 people injured in the attack, including six children, remained in hospital, TASS news agency quoted Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko as saying.
An anonymous medical source told TASS 205 people had received outpatient care.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova told reporters the previous day that many people in shock had initially not returned to the hospital for treatment.
On Friday, gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City concert hall near Moscow, also setting fire to the venue.
Four attack suspects — all from Tajikistan according to Russian state media — are under arrest along with several suspected accomplices.
A Moscow court has ordered the men be held in pre-trial detention until May 22 — a date likely to be extended until a full trial.
Russia said Saturday it had arrested 11 people in connection with the attack. There has been no information on the other seven.
The attack was swiftly claimed by Daesh although Moscow has repeated its initial line of a link to Ukraine.
Kyiv rejects any involvement.
Russia has for some years been a target of Daesh owing to its role in suppressing unrest in regions with a substantial Muslim majority as well as its support for the regime in Syria’s civil war.
On Monday, three days after the attack, President Vladimir Putin admitted for the first time that the presumed gunmen were radical Islamists but continued to insist on a link to Ukraine, saying the perpetrators were headed there when they were caught some 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the border.
French parliament condemns 1961 Paris massacre of Algerians
- In recent years France has made a series of efforts to come to terms with its colonial past in Algeria
- The text of the resolution, which is largely symbolic, stressed the crackdown took place “under the authority of police prefect Maurice Papon”
PARIS: The French parliament’s lower house on Thursday approved a resolution condemning as “bloody and murderous repression” the killing by Paris police of dozens of Algerians in a crackdown on a 1961 protest to support Algerian independence.
In recent years France has made a series of efforts to come to terms with its colonial past in Algeria.
Dozens of peaceful demonstrators died during a crackdown by Paris police on a protest by Algerians in 1961. The scale of the massacre was covered up for decades by French authorities before President Emmanuel Macron condemned it as “inexcusable” in 2021.
The text of the resolution, which is largely symbolic, stressed the crackdown took place “under the authority of police prefect Maurice Papon” and also called for the official commemoration of the massacre.
The bill, put forward by Greens lawmaker Sabrina Sebaihi and ruling Renaissance party MP Julie Delpech, was approved by 67 lawmakers, mainly representatives of the left and Macron’s party.
Eleven voted against, all members of the far-right National Rally party.
Sebaihi said the vote represented the “first step” toward the “recognition of this colonial crime, the recognition of this state crime.”
The term “state crime” however does not appear in the text of the resolution, which was jointly drafted by Macron’s party and the Elysee Palace. The subject remains highly sensitive both in France and Algeria.
The Paris police chief at the time, Papon, was in the 1980s revealed to have been a collaborator with the occupying Nazis in World War II and complicit in the deportation of Jews. He was convicted of crimes against humanity but later released.
On the 60th anniversary of the bloodshed in 2021, Macron acknowledged that several dozen protesters had been killed, “their bodies thrown into the River Seine.”
The precise number of victims has never been made clear and some activists fear several hundred could have been killed.
“Let us spare a thought here today for these victims and their families, who have been hit hard by the spiral of violence,” Dominique Faure, the minister for local and regional authorities, said on Thursday.
She noted that efforts had been made in the past to recognize the massacre.
In 2012, then president Francois Hollande paid “tribute to the victims” of a “bloody crackdown” on the men and women demonstrating for “the right to independence.”
The rally was called in the final year of France’s increasingly violent attempt to retain Algeria as a north African colony, and in the middle of a bombing campaign targeting mainland France by pro-independence militants.
However, Faure expressed reservations about establishing a special day to commemorate the massacre, pointing out that three dates already existed to “commemorate what happened during the Algerian war.”
“Much remains to be done to write this history, but in my opinion this is the only way to build a sincere and lasting reconciliation,” she said.
“I think it is important to let history do the work before considering a new day of commemoration specifically for the victims of October 17, 1961.”
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is set to travel to France for a state visit, scheduled for late September or early October, according to the Elysee.
However, National Rally lawmaker Frank Giletti criticized “excessive repentance” based on “lies.”
“By proposing this resolution, you are following in the footsteps of Emmanuel Macron, who has never stopped kneeling before the Algerian government, and who is working to mortify his own country through continuous repentance that has become unbearable,” he said.
France has made several attempts over the years to heal the wounds with Algeria, but it refuses to “apologize or repent” for the 132 years of often brutal rule that ended in 1962 after a devastating eight-year war.
French historians say half a million civilians and combatants died during the war for independence, 400,000 of them Algerian. The Algerian authorities say 1.5 million were killed.
France blocks fake Ukraine war recruitment website
- The site, which is now inaccessible, said 200,000 French people were invited to “enlist in Ukraine,” with immigrants given priority
- A link to the site — that resembled the French army’s genuine recruitment portal — had been posted on X, the French defense ministry said
PARIS: French authorities have uncovered a website containing a fake recruitment drive for French volunteers to join the war in Ukraine, the defense ministry said on Thursday.
The site has now been taken down by French services, a government source, who asked not to be named, told AFP without giving further details on the nature of the operation.
The site, which is now inaccessible, said 200,000 French people were invited to “enlist in Ukraine,” with immigrants given priority.
A link to the site — that resembled the French army’s genuine recruitment portal — had been posted on X, formerly Twitter, the French defense ministry said.
“The site is a fake government site,” the ministry said, also on X, “and has been reposted by malevolent accounts as part of a disinformation campaign.”
The ministry did not name any suspects in the website spoof, but a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the site bore “the hallmarks of a Russian or pro-Russian effort as part of a disinformation campaign claiming that the French army is preparing to send troops to Ukraine.”
French President Emmanuel Macron angered the Russian leadership last month by hardening his tone on the conflict sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, refusing to rule out sending ground troops and insisting Europe had to do all that was needed for a Russian defeat.
Similar recent examples of disinformation posts included pictures of French army convoys wrongly presented as moving toward the Ukrainian border, the official said.
The fake website invited potential recruits to contact “unit commander Paul” for information about joining.
The defense ministry and government cyber units are investigating, ministry staff told AFP.
The French government has recently stepped up efforts to denounce and fight what it says are Russian disinformation and destabilization campaigns aimed at undermining French public support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Indonesian medics in Gaza ‘shocked’ by scale of humanitarian catastrophe
- Team of 11 Indonesian doctors, surgical nurses are part of emergency medical team in Gaza
- Medics say they ‘won’t be able to forget’ views of death and destruction
JAKARTA: Indonesian medics who are on an emergency mission in Rafah say they are shocked at the scale of human catastrophe in Gaza, as they witness the worst scenes of suffering they have ever seen.
A team of 11 Indonesian doctors and surgical nurses organized by the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee entered Gaza last week as part of an emergency deployment led by the World Health Organization.
They are now working at a number of health facilities in Rafah, a city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where over a million Palestinians have sought refuge and Israel’s deadly bombings have increased.
“They are certainly shocked. These are medics who usually work in ordinary settings and are suddenly thrown into such heartbreaking scenes,” Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of MER-C’s executive committee, told Arab News on Thursday.
In Gaza, the medical volunteers not only witness the death and injury from Israeli attacks but also famine.
“They see the extent of people fighting to get food, or they see children fighting over scraps of meals to give to their family,” Murad said. “Their consciences are being sliced open as they bear witness to these scenes that they won’t be able to forget in their lives.”
Israeli attacks, which began in October, have killed more than 32,500 Palestinians and wounded 74,000 others, while over 1 million people in Gaza are at risk of imminent famine as Israel continues to block aid to the besieged strip.
The team of Indonesian medics is part of a larger emergency medical deployment led by the WHO and composed of members from different countries. It includes orthopedic physicians and surgical nurses to help victims of Israeli attacks who suffer injuries from bombings, missile attacks and gunshots.
They have been struggling with the limited amount of medicines and surgical equipment in the besieged territory.
“The medical sector in Gaza is extremely overwhelmed because of the number of victims and the fact that the number of doctors and health services available are inadequate,” Murad said.
“They handle war victims with traumatic burn injuries, and many patients have to undergo amputation as well.”
Israel has continued to bomb Gaza and block crucial humanitarian aid, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling on Monday for an immediate ceasefire in the strip during Ramadan.
A day after the council’s ceasefire resolution was passed, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said that there are reasonable grounds to believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.