Gov. John Bel Edwards said Louisiana is still in "life-saving mode" and, as the search and rescue crews clear through the debris in Hurricane Ida's aftermath, he fully expects the "confirmed death total to go up considerably."
The Louisiana National Guard deployed around 3 a.m. to some of the hardest hit parishes, including Lafourche, Terrebonne, St. John the Baptist and portions of Jefferson, where the governor said "homes have been damaged to the point where they're uninhabitable."
There was one confirmed death overnight after a tree fell on an Ascension Parish man. But Edwards said to expect more over the coming hours.
"We know that, for example, some apartment buildings collapsed partially in certain areas. This happened during the height of the storm and there was no way to go out and respond to those calls," Edwards said on the Today Show.
"I am certain that as the day goes on we will have more deaths," he said.