NEW ORLEANS —

Matthew 25: Ministries is no stranger to natural disasters.

The group has deployed teams and resources all over the country to assist recovery efforts. Cincinnatians are still on the ground in Louisiana helping to ease some of the burdens.

The post-Ida images are devastating.

Power outages and flooding make it difficult for even simple pleasures like clean clothes.

Matthew 25: Ministries is helping to provide.

"Washing clothes for people, distributing supplies like personal care items, cleaning supplies, tarps, batteries, water. Just those things that people need so badly right now," said Matthew 25: Ministries Dir. of Disaster Relief Ben Williams.

For two weeks, the team of nine has traveled all over Louisiana to hurricane-ravaged towns.

It's not their first time heading into the mess.

For many living down there, this isn't their first experience with similar damage.

"This is a extremely devastating storm. The effects are widespread. Our team has been all throughout Louisiana's southern parts and the needs are incredible in those areas," Williams said.

It all starts with support from home.

The donors and volunteers who make responding to disasters possible and that is felt from hundreds of miles away.

"They can't believe that someone from Cincinnati, Ohio came down to help them. And again, our team is just kind of the hands and feet of that. There's so many people that care about those people in those areas," Williams said.

Though the work is hard and the physical, emotional and mental toll great, this team knows they're making a difference.

"When we come back we know we've helped a lot of people in need and that's encouraging," Williams said.

Williams said there's no timetable for the team's return.

He said even once they leave Louisiana, they will continue to provide support by sending supplies.

NEW ORLEANS —

Residents at an apartment building in New Orleans say they were abandoned after Hurricane Ida knocked out electricity, and the property manager offered little to no assistance to the 40 or so low-income residents. Many are elderly and have acute health conditions that were exacerbated by the oppressive heat after the storm.

Electricity was restored Thursday, but people who suffered through the heat are demanding answers.

"We went through a lot of pain and suffering, couldn't sleep, never got sleep or nothing, man," said Tyrone Webber, a resident at Boyd Manor.

Residents depended on local community volunteers who brought them food, water and ice. Some of the volunteers had been inside the building's apartments and shared videos that showed water on the floor and leaks around window sills.

The volunteers made patchwork repairs, but residents say they have not heard from the property manager about long-term solutions.

"The landlord didn't come here, not one day. We was without lights and everything for 10 days, and she's going to come here today talking about she want rent," resident Yolanda Lewis said.

National Baptist Housing and Economic Development own the property. Its chairman, who is also a local pastor, said he had evacuated from New Orleans for the hurricane and had not been to the residence since the storm.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development financed the property and pays 70% of the rent for tenants, who must qualify as low-income. This means residents did not have the means to evacuate on their own.

However, a representative for the company that manages the building told sister station WDSU that the residents were given information to arrange their evacuation through the city's 311 service. Only one resident chose that option.

The on-site manager has been to the building every day since Hurricane Ida and brought residents food and water, the representative said. Residents dispute that claim, saying volunteers and a council member have been their only sources of aid. One resident said the manager "snuck in through the backdoor."

A community member said conditions were substandard before the hurricane. He, too, said property management has been absent in the storm's aftermath.

Personnel is expected to be sent to complete an assessment of building damage. That process was hindered by the lack of electricity. There was no timeline given for when repairs would be made, but contractors are reportedly expected to be hired if the damages are extensive.

Residents should not be expected to pay their portion of the rent in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, a representative for the company said, adding that she was not aware that the onsite property manager had pressed tenants for payments. She also said she was not aware of residents' claims that problems such as mold, mildew and leaks were present before the storm.

NEW ORLEANS —

Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Louisiana, most of them outside New Orleans, still didn't have power Tuesday and more than half of the gas stations in two major cities were without fuel nine days after Hurricane Ida slammed into the state, splintering homes and toppling electric lines.

There were also persistent signs of recovery, however, as the total number of people without electricity has fallen from more than a million at its peak, while hundreds of thousands of people have had their water restored. AT&T, which suffered widespread cellphone outages after the storm, reported that its wireless network now is operating normally in Louisiana.

As residents struggled to recover, state organizations, church groups and volunteers labored for a ninth day to hand out food, water and other necessary supplies to those left without resources when their homes were destroyed or left uninhabitable.

The disparity in power restoration between New Orleans, where nearly three-fourths of the city had electricity again, and other communities where almost all residents were still in the dark prompted frustration and finger-pointing.

State Rep. Tanner Magee, the House's second-ranking Republican who lives in the devastated city of Houma in Terrebonne Parish, said he's convinced his region is being shortchanged in favor of New Orleans.

"It's very infuriating to me," Magee said.

Though water was running again in his area, most hospitals in the region remained shuttered and the parish was in desperate need of temporary shelter for first responders and others vital to the rebuilding effort, he said.

Warner Thomas, president and CEO of the state's largest hospital system — Ochsner Health — warned that it would be "some time" before hospitals in Terrebonne and Lafourche parish fully reopen. Emergency rooms at the two hospitals, however, were open.

Carnival Cruise Line announced Tuesday that it will keep one of its ships, Carnival Glory, docked in New Orleans through Sept. 18 to serve as housing for first responders.

Kim Bass said the Louisiana heat was the hardest thing to cope with without power at her home in St. John the Baptist Parish. She said she and her husband were using a generator to keep food refrigerated but had no air conditioning. Water service was intermittent.

"So you may have water one minute, then you may not have water for the next two days," she said.

Fuel shortages also persisted across hard-hit areas of the state. More than 50% of gas stations in New Orleans and Baton Rouge remained without gasoline Tuesday morning, according to GasBuddy.com.

Magee said lines to get gasoline to power up generators and vehicles in his parish involve hourslong waits.

The power situation has improved greatly since Ida first hit. In the first hours after the storm, nearly 1.1 million customers were in the dark — including all of New Orleans. With the help of tens of thousands of workers from power companies in numerous states, the state's biggest energy provider, Entergy, has been able to slowly bring electricity back, leaving only 19% of its customers in the region without power as of Tuesday.

For residents in the state's four hardest-hit parishes in southeastern Louisiana, however, that number is little comfort. Fully 98% of those residents are still without power more than a week after Ida slammed onshore with 150 mph winds (240 kph) on Aug. 29.

Power probably won't be widely restored to St. John the Baptist Parish until Sept. 17 and until Sept. 29 to Lafourche, St. Charles and Terrebonne parishes, Entergy said Monday. The parishes are home to about 300,000 people.

In St. John the Baptist, power has been restored to "a small pocket" of customers in the hard-hit town of LaPlace, Entergy Louisiana President and CEO Phillip May said in a Tuesday conference call. He didn't say how many now have power there, but promised the number will rise as crews work their way into the community.

A parade of utility trucks on Tuesday passed by a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in LaPlace that serves as a clearinghouse for donated water, ice and other supplies still desperately needed in the area. One truck was in the parking lot of the hall working to restore electricity.

In contrast, nearly all power has been restored in the capital of Baton Rouge, and only 27% of homes and businesses are still suffering outages in New Orleans. Entergy said it expected to have the vast majority of New Orleans brought online by Wednesday. Once areas such as New Orleans have their power restored, Entergy is moving its crews into communities south and west of the city that saw more widespread damage, May said.

As Entergy worked to get the lights turned on everywhere, the Louisiana Department of Health reported that the number of people without water had fallen from a peak of 850,000 to 58,000, though about 850,000 people were being advised to boil their water for safety. And grocery stores reopened in some places.

Ida's death toll in Louisiana rose to 15 people Tuesday after the state Department of Health reported two additional storm-related fatalities: a 68-year-old man who fell off of a roof while making repairs to damage caused by Hurricane Ida and a 71-year-old man who died of a lack of oxygen during an extended power outage. The storm's remnants also brought historic flooding, record rains and tornados from Virginia to Massachusetts, killing at least 50 more people.

Seven nursing home residents in Louisiana died after being evacuated during Hurricane Ida to a warehouse in the town of Independence where conditions were later determined to be unhealthy and unsafe, according to state health officials who said they've launched an investigation into the facility.

In New Orleans, hundreds of seniors were evacuated from apartments after the electricity went out and some were trapped in wheelchairs on the top floors of their multi-story apartment complexes. The managers of some of the homes for seniors evacuated out of state without making sure the residents would be safe after the storm, New Orleans City Council member Kristin Palmer said Monday.

The Louisiana Department of Health has revoked the license of seven nursing home facilities after seven residents died after being evacuated and housed in an "inhumane" warehouse during Hurricane Ida.

According to NBC News, five of those deaths were classified as storm-related.

CNN reported that more than 800 residents were brought to the warehouse in the town of Independence ahead of the storm.

Stephen Russo, the department's attorney, announced the move during a press conference on Tuesday.

“Let’s be clear. There is no emergency-preparedness plan that allows for residents to be kept in such an unsafe, unsanitary, and unhealthy condition," Russo said. "The lack of adequate care for these residents is inhumane and goes against the rules, regulations, and applicable statutes.”

According to Scripps sister station KATC, the facilities losing their license are:

• River Palms Nursing and Rehab, Orleans Parish
• South Lafourche Nursing and Rehab, Lafourche Parish
• Maison Orleans Healthcare Center, Orleans Parish
• Park Place Healthcare Nursing Home, Jefferson Parish
• West Jefferson Health Care Center, Jefferson Parish
• Maison De Ville Nursing Home, Terrebonne Parish
• Maison Deville Nursing Home of Harvey, Jefferson Parish

According to the Lafayette Daily Advertiser, all the facilities are owned by Baton Rouge businessman Bob Dean.

In a statement, State Attorney General Jeff Landry said his office would launch a full investigation into the "tragedy."

About 14,000 people in one Louisiana parish are without homes after Hurricane Ida damaged or destroyed 75% of the structures there, Lafourche Parish President Archie Chaisson said Monday.

"We are working feverishly, as hard as we can to get all people what they need to keep their lives going and to rebuild our community," Chaisson told CNN's Aliysn Camerota.

The parish remains under a curfew, and power likely won't be restored until around Sept. 29, according to regional energy provider Entergy.

Chaisson also addressed the deaths of seven people after being evacuated from seven nursing homes to a warehouse in Tangipahoa Parish. One of those nursing homes is in Lafourche Parish.

"These nursing homes have an emergency plan so that when we call mandatory evacuation and they know they have to leave, they have a safe place to put their residents," Chaisson told CNN. "In this case, that didn't happen."

State Sen. Kirk Talbot told sister station WDSU he wants to require backup generators at nursing homes and said it will be the first bill he will file next year.

Louisiana State Health Officer Dr. Joseph Kanter on Saturday ordered the immediate closure of the nursing homes pending further regulatory action.

Parts of Louisiana are under flash flood watch

Louisiana residents who have been without power since Hurricane Ida hit last week could see more severe weather.

Parts of southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi, including Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Gulfport, are under a heat advisory, as high temperatures will be in the upper 80s and lower 90s, with a heat index between 100 and 105 degrees.

In addition, a flash flood watch is in effect in the region through the evening Monday as slow-moving thunderstorms are expected to develop. These storms are expected to produce widespread heavy rain of 2 to 3 inches in a short period of time, which will likely lead to flash flooding due to soils already saturated with water.

Meanwhile, about 486,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana still do not have electricity, according to PowerOutage.US. The lack of power, excess heat and issues with water and fuel have made the ongoing conditions dangerous.

"We have seen a lot of folks getting heatstroke and other illnesses from not having access to medicine," St. Charles Parish President Matthew Jewell told CNN on Monday. "That's why we worked real hard this week to get a lot of our pharmacies opened up. That's why we've been working with the Sheriff's Office to make sure we do wellness checks on our elderly population because you just can't sit in this type of heat for extended periods of time."

In Tangipahoa Parish, residents in need of shelter are being taken to facilities in other parishes because of the ongoing outages.

"There is no facilities available, with the damage to the schools and the lack of power for those facilities," said Dawson Primes, Tangipahoa Parish homeland security and emergency management director.

Communities all along Ida's path -- from Louisiana to New York -- are still working to recover more than a week after the storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. Though it weakened into a tropical depression as it reached the Northeast, its heavy rains still brought devastation to the region.

In both regions, roadways turned to rivers, lives were lost and structures were destroyed by strong winds and rising waters. The recovery and repair could last weeks in some places, officials said.

President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration for five counties in New York and six counties in New Jersey, a designation that allows for federal assistance, state officials said.

In the New York borough of Queens those impacted by the storm were seeking resources Sunday to help in the recovery. Some needed help getting their utilities back, some needed help with the water damage and others needed assistance with the emotional traumas.

"If you drive around Queens, it looks like a bomb went off. Everybody's personal belongings are out on the street and we've seen what it looks like down south after a hurricane. This is what Queens looks like today. It's horrible," Queens resident Barbara Amarantinis told CNN.

Due to climate change, destruction like that seen in both the Gulf and East Coast from extreme weather will be "our new normal," Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell warned Sunday.

"This is the crisis of our generation, these impacts that we are seeing from climate change, and we have to act now to try to protect against the future risks that we are going to face," Criswell said during an interview on Fox Sunday morning.

Hundreds of thousands without electricity in Louisiana

In Louisiana, not only was the damage from the storm severe, but the impact on utilities has made it even harder for many parts of the state to recover. The biggest challenge is the lack of electricity.

Portions of Jefferson Parish experienced "more busted power poles (and) down utility lines than we've had in history" due to Hurricane Ida, said a Saturday update from Parish Councilman Dominick Impastato.

"There's not a neighborhood that's been spared, there's not a street that's been spared, there's not a neighborhood that doesn't have a massive amount of split power poles," Impastato said.

The lack of power has led to cascading infrastructure issues: a shortage of fuel, lack of water pressure and problems at water treatment plants. Hospitals and some homes and businesses have tried to rely on generators, but that poses its own challenges, said Joe Valiente, emergency management director of Jefferson Parish.

"Right now, our government and our response capabilities are on life support because we rely totally on generated power. And of course to have generators, you have to have fuel," Valiente told CNN. "So fuel has been short because two-thirds of our refinery capabilities were knocked out."

Those capabilities are coming back online, but for now, the parish has limited water pressure, non-functioning traffic lights and closed stores.

"This area simply is not ready to sustain everyday normal living," he said.

'Once-in-a-century storm' hits the East

After surveying the damage Friday in Louisiana, the president will travel to New Jersey and New York on Tuesday to assess the impact on the East Coast, where the storm claimed the lives of at least 50 people.

Paterson, New Jersey, Mayor André Sayegh lamented the destruction, telling CNN, "As if a once-in-a-century virus wasn't enough, we had a once-in-a-century storm."

In Paterson alone, about 300 people had been rescued, almost 100 cars were left abandoned throughout the city and 30 families were seeking refuge at emergency shelters Saturday, Sayegh said.

Many of the efforts at rescue have been strenuous, like helping a man on the banks of the Passaic River near a bridge. Paterson Fire Chief Brian McDermott described how Paterson's Metro Urban Strike Team drilled a hole in the concrete bridge, plowing through several layers of rebar and corrugated steel to see through to the bottom of the bridge and eventually pull the man out.

"All while the storm is raging, the winds are raging, and we're handling a third alarm fire. An ambulance trapped with people. A hundred fifty people calling for help and we're only 8.4 square miles -- that's a lot going on," McDermott said, commenting on his team's overall rescue operations.

In Elizabeth, New Jersey, a mother, father, and son died by drowning in their apartment building, officials said.

Rosa Espinal, 72, and her husband Jose Torres, 71, and their 38-year-old son Jose Torres died when more than 12 feet of water drenched their apartment in a residential complex, city spokesperson Kelly Martins told CNN on Friday. Their neighbor, 33-year-old Shakia Garrett, also drowned, Martins said

In New York, the initial assessment of the damage Ida left behind is estimated as at least $50 million, Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.

Displaced New Yorkers will be eligible for temporary housing assistance funds, unemployment assistance, legal services, crisis counseling and home repairs, she said.

WASHINGTON —

Video above: Biden pledges to aid Louisiana residents after Ida

President Joe Biden will survey damage in parts of the northeast that suffered catastrophic flash flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, and use the muddy backdrop to call for federal spending to fortify infrastructure so it can better withstand such powerful storms.

Biden is set to tour Manville, New Jersey, and the New York City borough of Queens on Tuesday.

At least 50 people were killed in six Eastern states as record rainfall last week overwhelmed rivers and sewer systems. Some people were trapped in fast-filling basement apartments and cars, or were swept away as they tried to escape. The storm also spawned several tornadoes.

More than half of those deaths, 27, were recorded in New Jersey. In New York City, 13 people were killed, including 11 in Queens.

Biden's visit follows a Friday trip to Louisiana, where Hurricane Ida first made landfall, killing at least 13 people in the state and plunging New Orleans into darkness. Power is being slowly restored.

Manville, situated along New Jersey's Raritan River, is almost always hard-hit by major storms. It was the scene of catastrophic flooding in 1998 as the remnants of Tropical Storm Floyd swept over New Jersey. It also sustained serious flooding during the aftermath of Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Biden has approved major disaster declarations, making federal aid available for people in six New Jersey counties and five New York counties affected by the devastating floods.

Both New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio spent part of Labor Day touring damaged communities. Deanne Criswell, the former city emergency management director who's now in charge at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, joined the mayor.

Biden used his appearance in Louisiana to pitch his plan, pending in Congress, to spend $1 trillion on modernizing roads, bridges, sewers and drainage systems, and other infrastructure to make them better able to withstand the blows from more and more powerful storms.

"Hurricane Ida is another reminder that we need to be prepared for the next hurricane and superstorms that are going to come, and they're going to come more frequently and more ferociously," Biden said Friday in a hard-hit residential neighborhood in LaPlace.

Murphy said he would speak with Biden on Tuesday about adding other New Jersey counties to the disaster declaration.

Past presidents have been defined in part by how they handle such crises, and Biden has seen several weather-induced emergencies in his short presidency, starting with a February ice storm that caused the power grid in Texas to fail. He has also been monitoring wildfires in the West.

The White House has sought to portray Biden as in command of the federal response to these natural disasters, making it known that he is getting regular updates from his team and that he is keeping in touch with governors and other elected officials in the affected areas.

Scientists say climate change increases the frequency of extreme weather events, including large tropical storms that swirl into powerful hurricanes.

Ida was the fifth-most powerful storm to hit the U.S. when it made landfall in Louisiana on Aug. 29. The storm's remnants dropped devastating rainfall across parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, causing significant disruption in major cities.

A dolphin that was pushed into a canal in Louisiana during Hurricane Ida was rescued Sunday morning.

It was a team effort Sunday as Chief Randy Fandal with the Slidell Police Department and many other organizations came out to the Schneider Canal to assist in the capture of the dolphin.

Nearly a dozen people got into the water to rescue the dolphin. You can watch video of that rescue in the video player above.

They were able to secure the dolphin onto an orange tarp and load it into a vehicle that had a tank of water.

The dolphin then received a police escort and was transported to a vet. Police said the dolphin will then go to The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies for rehabilitation.

Less than a week after Hurricane Ida ravaged the Gulf Coast, President Joe Biden was in Louisiana on Friday to get an up-close view of the damage and offer assistance from the federal government.

The devastation was clear as Air Force One approached New Orleans, with uprooted trees and blue tarps covering shredded houses coming into focus ahead of landing. The path to nearby LaPlace, where Biden was to be briefed by local officials, was dotted with wood poles that held power lines jutting from the ground at odd angles.

"I promise we're going to have your back," Biden said at the outset of the briefing.

Such trips to natural disaster scenes have long been a feature of the U.S. presidency. It's a moment to demonstrate compassion and show the public that the president is leading during the crisis. It's also an opportunity to hit pause, however temporarily, from the political sniping that often dominates Washington.

In shirtsleeves and boots, Biden was welcomed at the airport by Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat. Several Republicans, including Sen. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Steve Scalise, the House Republican whip, were also on hand.

Biden was meeting with with local officials and touring a neighborhood in LaPlace, a community between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain that suffered catastrophic wind and water damage and was left with sheared-off roofs and flooded homes. He also planned a flyover tour of hard-hit communities including Lafitte, Grand Isle, Port Fourchon and Lafourche Parish, where Parish President Archie Chaisson said 25% of the homes in his community of 100,000 people were gone or had catastrophic damage.

Past presidents have been defined in part by how they handled such crises.

Donald Trump casually lobbed paper towels to people in Puerto Rico after a hurricane, generating scorn from critics but little damage to his political standing. Barack Obama hugged New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie in 2012 after Superstorm Sandy, a brief respite from partisan tensions that had threatened the economy with a fiscal cliff. And George W. Bush fell out of public favor after a poor and unprepared response to Hurricane Katrina, which swamped New Orleans in 2005.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, Biden is grappling with the persistent threat posed by climate change and the prospect that disaster zone visits may become a more regular feature of the presidency. Before he left Washington, Biden called for greater public resolve to confront climate change and help the nation deal with the fierce storms, flooding and wildfires that have beset the country.

Scientists say climate change increases the frequency of extreme weather events — such as large tropical storms, and the droughts and heatwaves that create conditions for vast wildfires. U.S. weather officials recently reported that July 2021 was the hottest month ever recorded in 142 years of record-keeping.

As for Friday's trip, Biden said his message to the Gulf Coast was: "We are here for you. And we're making sure the response and recovery is equitable so that those hit hardest get the resources they need and are not left behind."

Biden's nearly eight-month-old presidency has been shaped in part by perpetual crises. The president went to Texas in February after a cold winter storm caused its power grid to fail and he has repeatedly monitored the wildfires that have darkened skies in Western states.

Besides natural disasters, the president has had to contend with a multitude of other challenges. He is searching for ways to rescue the 100-200 Americans stuck in Afghanistan after the longest war in U.S. history ended only a matter of days ago. He is also confronting the delta variant of the coronavirus that has stuck the country in an autumn of uncertainty only months after Biden declared independence from the disease at a July 4 celebration on the White House lawn.

His call for resolve to help the country overcome the pandemic and forge a $1 trillion infrastructure deal is now being applied to the perilous task of withstanding the aftershocks of climate change.

"The past few days of Hurricane Ida and the wildfires in the West and the unprecedented flash floods in New York and New Jersey is yet another reminder that these extreme storms and the climate crisis are here," he said Thursday. "We need to be much better prepared. We need to act."

Biden pledged robust federal help for states dealing with natural disasters. And he said he will further press Congress to pass his nearly $1 trillion infrastructure bill to improve roads, bridges, the electric grid and sewer systems.

The proposal intends to ensure that the vital networks connecting cities and states and the country as a whole can withstand the flooding, whirlwinds and damage caused by increasingly dangerous weather.

Ida was the fifth-most powerful storm to strike the U.S. when it hit Louisiana on Sunday with maximum winds of 150 mph (240 kph), likely causing tens of billions of dollars in flood, wind and other damage, including to the electrical grid. The storm's remnants dropped devastating rainfall across parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey on Wednesday, causing significant disruption to major population centers.

The storm has killed at least 48 people in the Northeastern U.S. and at least 13 in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

___

Associated Press writers Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, La., and Christina Larson and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

PALM HARBOR, Fla. — While Louisiana and Mississippi continue to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, some steps were taken before the storm to keep hundreds of animals safe.

Merrick, Riley, and Geneva were among the dozens of dogs rescued from the storm zone and taken to Suncoast Animal League in Palm Harbor, Florida. Now, all three are hoping to find a new home.

"I can't even tell you what they've been through these past few days," said Rick Chaboudy, who runs Suncoast Animal League.

Suncoast Animal League took in 39 dogs from the storm zone ravaged by Hurricane Ida. Most are already in foster homes around Pinellas County.

"These dogs are so resilient. They've amazed us at everything they've gone through," Chaboudy said. "The trips, time spent in cages, things like that. To come out happy, wagging their tails — just glad to be here, basically."

While some dogs found and rescued after Ida could be heading to Pinellas in the days ahead, others didn't have owners and were already in shelters.

"By taking them, not only are we saving their lives, but we are also making room so they can take in the dogs that are found as strays and such during the aftermath of the event," Chaboudy said.

The dogs can't be adopted until after they've been spayed or neutered, but Suncoast Animal League said so many people have already said they want to help.

"They are watching the devastation that's going on. We are too. And then you look at these guys and think, 'Wow, 24-48 hours ago; they could have been in the middle of all that," Chaboudy said.

To find out more about adopting a dog, visit the Suncoast Animal League's website.

This story was originally published by Erik Waxler on Scripps station WFTS in Tampa, Florida.

HOUMA, La. — It’s deceptively beautiful at the end of another hot Louisiana day. Perhaps it’s a sort of apology from Mother Nature following Hurricane Ida. However, it's come too late, as gas is in short supply and desperation is starting to set in.

“We need help,” said resident Brandy Jones.

You could see the desperation on Jones’ face and hear it in her voice.

“We got hit the hardest, so you’d think they would have something for us, but they don’t have anything,” she explained.

Sitting outside a makeshift shelter in Houma, Louisiana, this mother, her 4-year-old child and their family have no place to go. Their home was left uninhabitable by Ida.

It could be weeks before this city of 30,000 people has power again.

Even the shelter here has no running water or air conditioning. It’s as hot outside as it is inside.

“I feel really pissed off, angry, you think this is our Parish. This is bad,” Jones said. “We asked, and nobody knows what’s the plan. They said they wasn’t prepared for this. How?”

Things are not much better for Brinson Sangste, who is living inside his car with his cat. He’s parked his car in the parking lot of the shelter here.

Sangste filled an extra tank of gas and packed some coolers with cooking supplies

“In that suitcase, I’ve got eight pairs of blue jeans and about 25 shirts,” he shared.

This is all he has now.

“Ah, it humbles yourself. You learn what you need what you don’t need,” he said.

Sangste lives in Dulac, Louisiana, a small, unreachable town 30 miles south of the shelter he’s now at. His town took a direct hit.

“There’s nothing, nothing. I almost didn’t come back,” he said.

For those without the means to leave, this is it. They battled a Category 4 hurricane, only to now be baking in nearly 100-degree weather with no air conditioning.

Those who are lucky enough to have generators, like Mary Guidry, are doing what they can to occupy the time.

“We’ve been picking up stuff all over, but some stuff you can’t pick up,” she said.

It may not seem like much, amidst the devastation, but people here have to start somewhere.

Even utility crews are beginning the painstakingly complex process of somehow getting the power grid across Southeast Louisiana back online.

People across the Gulf Coast are trying not to lose sight of what’s important, even though Ida has taken so much away.

After surging in the spring, the prices of goods like lumber, corn and soybeans have come back down to Earth. Coffee is headed in the opposite direction.

What's happening: Futures for robusta coffee, which is often used to make espresso, recently jumped as high as $2,024 per ton, their highest level in four years. Analysts are pointing to adverse weather in Brazil as well as COVID-19 restrictions in Vietnam.

"Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world," Warren Patterson, ING's head of commodities strategy, told me. "They've been hit with quite a bad drought this year and it's been followed by frost," which has seriously harmed the country's coffee trees.

Arabica futures for December are up 3% this month after climbing 18% in July.

What it means: Companies like Starbucks buy coffee ahead of time and have hedging strategies in place to lock in prices. But J.M. Smucker, which owns the Folgers and Dunkin' coffee brands, said last week that rising costs will still affect its business, especially since it's already contending with more expensive transportation and packaging.

"As we came into the fiscal year, we were anticipating mid single-digit cost inflation as a percent of our total cost of goods sold," J.M. Smucker's Chief Financial Officer Tucker Marshall told analysts. "Now we're seeing high single-digit cost inflation."

Consumers could pay some of the difference. JDE Peet's, whose coffee portfolio includes Peet's Coffee and Stumptown, said earlier this month that it had some hedging "in place" but was thinking hard about its pricing strategy.

Another commodity that's been on the rise recently is oil. Prices are being closely monitored on Monday for effects from Hurricane Ida, which has now weakened to a tropical storm. More than 95% of the Gulf of Mexico's oil production facilities have been shut down, regulators said Sunday.

Brent crude futures were gaining ground even before Ida hit, rising 11.5% last week thanks to optimism that China appeared to have the delta variant under control. It was the best week for the global oil benchmark since spring 2020.

Economists often strip out volatile energy and food prices when they track inflation. But higher costs can still impact inflation expectations among businesses and consumers, which are closely tracked by central banks like the Federal Reserve.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicated Friday that the central bank, which has been buying $120 billion worth of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities every month since the height of the pandemic to support the economy, will start pumping the brakes before the end of the year.

Yet data on inflation — and how long it will persist — remains murky, as weather events and ongoing supply chain pressures throw new curveballs. That complicates the decision-making process for policymakers at a delicate moment.

A video shared with sister station WDSU on Monday shows what appears to be a dolphin swimming in a body of water in a Slidell, Louisiana, neighborhood after Hurricane Ida moved across the area.Amanda Huling said while assessing the damage around her neighborhood in Slidell Monday morning, she came across a dolphin in a small body of water. Louisiana residents are now faced with immense recovery efforts after Hurricane Ida devastated the Southeast Louisiana Coast.A fearsome Hurricane Ida has left scores of coastal Louisiana residents trapped by floodwaters and pleading to be rescued while making a shambles of the electrical grid across a wide swath of the state in the sweltering, late-summer heat.

Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans Sunday after cutting through the Gulf of Mexico, causing massive disruptions to U.S. oil production before making landfall.More than 95% of the Gulf of Mexico's oil production facilities have been shut down, regulators said Sunday, indicating the massive storm is having a significant impact on energy supply.Six refineries in the New Orleans area — including PBF, Phillips, Shell, Marathon and two Valero refineries — are shut down right now, Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, a Houston-based consulting firm, told CNN Business. "It's now a waiting game to assess whatever wind and flooding damage will be caused as the hurricane passes through the area."The location of Hurricane Ida's landfall is "one of the worst possible for the oil industry" and it could impact the major pipelines that carry fuel from the Gulf Coast to the East Coast markets, Lipow said. The shuttered six refineries "account for about 1.7 million barrels per day of refinery capacity, representing 9% of the nation's total," he said.The other three refineries in the area — Exxon, Placid and Kratz Springs — are in the Baton Rouge area. "They appear to be operating at reduced levels," Lipow said, adding that those three refineries account for about 700,000 barrels per day, roughly 3.5% of U.S. daily consumption.On Saturday, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) prepared for the storm by activating its Hurricane Response Team. The agency said it was monitoring offshore oil and gas operators in the Gulf as they evacuated platforms and rigs. As of late Saturday morning, personnel were evacuated from 288 offshore platforms. That represents about 51% of the manned facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, according to operator reports that were submitted to the BSEE.To restart operations in the aftermath of the storm, producers will need to get personnel back on site, assess and repair damage and restore utilities, Lipow said. But these initiatives take time, especially under the current conditions.The widespread loss of oil supply from one of America's largest energy hubs is likely to lift prices. U.S. oil prices rose sharply last week ahead of Ida's arrival. Oil futures are set to begin trading at 5 p.m. ET Sunday.

Hide Transcript
Show Transcript

ORGANIZATISON WE’VE BEEN TALKING A LOT ABOUT THE WEATHER PROBABLY TALKING MORE ABOUT WHAT’S HAPPENING IN OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNYTR EVEN MORE SO HERE BECAUSE WHAT’S HAPPENING INHE T GULF COAST. EVERYONE IS FOCUSED ON YEAH ABSOLUTELY IS OUR BIG WEATHER STORY AS WE GO INTO THE WEEKEND. SO WE’RE STILL LOOKING AT A CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE TO IMPACT THE GOLF CATEGORY FOR THE LATEST ADVISORY DID COME OUT AT 11 O’CLK OCFROM THE HURRICANE CENTER. SO SO WE’RE GNAON KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON THAT AND THEN WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO WATCH AFTER TTHA IS WHERE IT TRACKS NORTH BECAUSE WE COULD ACTUALLY SEE THE TROPICAL MOISTURE MOVE UP INTO THE OHIO VALLEYO S THAT WOULD BRI USNG VERY SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL TOTALS HERE AS WE HEAD INTO TUESDAY AND DAY LIVE RADAR RIGHT NOW SHOWING A CANLE SWEEP ACROSS THE GREATER CINCINNATI AREA. WE DID HAVE SOME LOCLYAL HEAVY DOWNPOURS THIS AFTERNOON. THEY BUBBLED UP IN THE HEAT OF THE DAY ONCE THE SUN SET THEY WENT AWAY. SO AS WE GO THROUGH TONIGHT, WE’RE LOOKING AT DRY SKIES. WE’VE GOT PARTLY CLOUDY SKIES, I THKIN BY TOMORROW MORNING SOMETIME BETWEEN FIVE ANDIX S WE’RE LOOKING ATOR ME NUMEROUS SCATTERED SHOWERS AND MAYBE A RUMBLE OF THUNDER COMING UP FROM KENTUCKY HERE. SO THOSE ARE GNAON LIFT UP INTO THE OHIO RIVER AREA AND MOVE NORTH. SO NOT EVERYONE. SOME SCATTERED SHOWERS TOMORROW MORNING, BUT WHERE IT DOES RAIN IT’LL BE COMING DOW INN BUCKETS AGAIN. WE’VE GOT A LOT OF MOISTURE OUT THERE FOR TSEHE STORMS TO WORK WITH SO NINE O’CLOCK TOMORROW MORNING. WE’VE GOT SOME LOCALLY HEAVY SHOWERS AND STORMS. I THINK WE GET INTO A LITTLE BIT OF A BREAK SOMETIME BETWEEN ABOUT 11 AND 12, MAYBE EVEN AS LATES A ONE BUT AFTER THAT WE’RE LOOKING AT ADDITIONAL SCATTERED SHOWERS AND STORMSO S ADVANCING THIS TO ABOUT THREE O’CLOCK HERE. 'W’VE GOT MORE SCATTERED SHOWERS AND STORMS AGAIN LIGHTNING LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL THE OUR BIGGEST THREATS THROUGH TOMORROW AFTERNOON AND EVENING. I THINK WE’RE STILL LOOKING AT SOMEF O THOSE SCATTERED SHOWERS AND STORMS AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE MIDNIGHT HOURS WHIT MORE POTENTIAL FOR STORMS INTO EARLY MONDAY MORNING. BUT AGAIN BIG WEATHER STORY THIS WEEKDEN IS HURRICANE ITA STILL A CATEGORY 2 STORM WITH 105 MILE AN HOUR WINDS, BUT WHAT'’ GOING TO HAPPEN HERE IN JUST EIGHT HOURS TIME. THISS I GOING TO RAPIDLY STRENGTHEN INTO A CATEGORY 4 STORM. SO BY 7 AM TOROMROW, WE’RE LOOKING AT 130 MILE AN HROU WINDS. THIS WILL LANDFALL AS A CATEGORY FOUR HERE IN LOUISIANA. SO INCREDIBLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE HERE. WE’RE ALREADY SEEING THE OERUT BAND STARTING TO IMPACT SEOM OF THESE COASTAL AREAS. I DID SHIFT TO THE EAST JUST A LITTLE BIT. WE DID TALK ABOUT TTHA AT 10 O CLOCK NEW TRACKAM CE OUT VERY SLIGHT SHIFT EAST. SO WHAT THAT DOES HERE PUTS NEW ORLEANS IN MORE OF THOSE STRONGER WINDS. WE’RE NOT LOOKING AT A DIRECT HIT THERE FROM THE IOWA BUT STRONGER WDSIN THERE IMPACTING NEW ORLEANS AND THEN AGAIN WE ARE FOCUS IS GOINGO T BE ON WHERE TSHI HEAD’S NEXT BECAUSE THAT TROPICAL MOISTURE WILL EVENTULYAL FOURTH AND I THINK IT DOES HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO MOVE INTO OUR AREA AND INTERACT WITH THE COLD FRONT COMING IN TUESDAY INTO WEDNESDAY. SO THAT WOULD ENHANCE OUR RAINLLFA TOTALS A BIT HERE. WE’RE LOOKING AT 10O T 15 INCHES OF WIDESPREAD RAIN FOR THE GOLF LOCALLY HIGH TOTALS OF 20 PLUS INCHES, BUT FOR US HERE SOME EARLY MODEL RUNS SUGGESTING WE COULD SEE ONE TO THREE PLUS INCHES OF RAINFALL ACROSSHE T GREATER CINCINNATI AREA NOW WHERE THIS PANS OUT STILL TO BE DETERMINED, BUT WE’VE GOT OUR EYE ON TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY HERE. NOW I PRAY I PLAN ON SEOM BREEZY CONDITIONS BOTH DAYS ALONG WITH SOME SOAKING RAINFALL AS WE GO THROUGH TONIGHT TEMPERATURES SETTLING IONT THE 70S UNDER PARTLY CLOUDY SKIES, VERY MUGGY. AND THEN FOR TOMORROW WE'R’ LOOKING AT SOME 90S PARTLY OUDYCL TO MOSTLY CLAUDIA. SO STORMS START TO ROLL THROUGH HEAT INDEX IS GOING TO BE CLOSER TO 95 TO 100. LOOK AT YOUR 74 CAST HERE. WE’VE GOT WEATHER IMPACT DAY SUNDAY MONDAY AND TUESDAY WITH THOSE STORMS RAIN STILL IMPACTING THE AREA THROUGH WEDNESDAY. MORNING, POSSIBLY AS LATE AS 12 AND THEN WE'R’ LOOKING AT DRY SKIES BELOW OUR HUMIDITY THERE MOVING IN FOR THE L

Stormy next few days

Scattered showers and storms close out the weekend. Tropical moisture from Hurricane Ida could enhance Cincinnati rainfall for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Updated: 11:35 PM EDT Aug 28, 2021

Scattered showers and storms close out the weekend. Tropical moisture from Hurricane Ida could enhance Cincinnati rainfall for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Scattered showers and storms close out the weekend. Tropical moisture from Hurricane Ida could enhance Cincinnati rainfall for Tuesday and Wednesday.