The core of Hurricane Ida reached the Baton Rouge region around 10 p.m. Sunday night, increasing the intensity of winds and rain throughout the capitol region.
In East Baton Rouge Parish alone, more than 116,000 homes and businesses had lost power by 10 p.m., and tens of thousands more had lost power in surrounding parishes. Police, firefighters and other first responders said they were sheltering in place, and were not going out to make rescues unless lives were at risk.
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Most people and businesses in the Baton Rouge area were without power Sunday night as Hurricane Ida stalled over Southeast Louisiana, pummelin…
One fatality had already been confirmed: The Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office said a man died when a tree fell into his house.
Roads were closed throughout the area. I-10 was closed in both directions in Prairieville; East Baton Rouge had closed Bluebonnet Boulevard at the underpass near the mall and Acadian Thruway from Perkins to I-10, among many others.
The Central Fire Department said on Twitter around 10 p.m. that it had responded to four trees on homes within 15 minutes, though no injuries were reported.
It was difficult to assess damage because the worst of the storm struck long after dark, and it would likely be hours before the danger was over.
Gusts of 59 mph were reported at the Baton Rouge Airport. At the Gonzales airport, gusts of 75 mph were recorded.
Ida slammed ashore in the afternoon, causing devastating storm surge and destructive winds in coastal parishes. It then stalled west of New Orleans, causing serious wind damage and long hours of heavy rain there. The storm plodded northward, its worst winds reaching Baton Rouge later than expected.
As it did so, the storm's path shifted to the east. That was bad news for parishes like Tangipahoa, eastern Livingston, and St. Helena.
Tangipahoa Parish Council member Kim Coates, of the Ponchatoula area, feared a "worst case scenario" for the southern part of the parish. By early evening, with much more rain to come, she said water at Pass Manchac was over 4 feet — it reached 6 feet in Katrina and 8 feet in Isaac.
The director of Tangipahoa's Office of Emergency Preparedness, Dawson Primes, said the storm was "going to be serious for the whole parish."
Meanwhile, west of Baton Rouge, the shift eastward was welcome news.
“We’ve been blessed so far, but we’re not ready to let our guards down because we’ve still got a little ways to go with this event,” West Baton Rouge Parish spokesman Jason Manola said late Sunday. "Definitely, from what we were forecast last night to what we’re seeing, like I said, we’ve been blessed."
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An Ascension Parish man was killed Sunday when a tree fell on his home during Hurricane Ida, sheriff's deputies said.
Both West Baton Rouge and Iberville Parish reported some fallen trees and power outages, but the damage had not been as bad as feared.
“The projected wind speeds and wind gusts were going to be above 90 (mph)," said Iberville Emergency Management Director Clint Moore. "So far the highest we’ve seen was 45, maybe 50. So we’re in a good place right now."