Vox Sentences - Ida's impact

Hurricane Ida has left nearly a million people in Louisiana without power; the US military launched a retaliatory drone strike in Afghanistan. 

Tonight's Sentences was written by Gabby Birenbaum.

Hurricane Ida’s destructive path

Courtesy of Khalid Hudson

• Sixteen years to the day since Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans, Hurricane Ida — a stronger but smaller storm — reached the city, testing the levee system it built after the failures of the 2005 storm. [Axios]
• Ida made landfall in Louisiana on Sunday night as a category 4 storm, with winds as strong as 156 miles per hour. Planning was particularly complicated given that hospitals in Louisiana, as well as in neighboring Alabama and Mississippi, are already struggling with hospital capacity given a surge in delta variant Covid-19 cases. [Vox / Ellen Ioanes]
• As of Monday morning, more than 1 million Louisianans were without power, including the entirety of New Orleans. At least one person has died. [WSJ]
• Energy executives in New Orleans said they are still assessing the damage and do not yet have a timeline for restoring power. Several transmission lines and a tower have been knocked down. [Nola / Jeff Adelson]
• Unlike during Katrina, the flood protection system seems to have kept New Orleans from being drowned. Nowhere along the 192 miles of the system did floods breach through the barriers. But damage to four hospitals and the electricity failures mean New Orleans residents are still in danger. [NYT / Christopher Flavelle]
• Many residents were reminded of Hurricane Katrina, particularly regarding making the decision over whether or not to evacuate. Physical and mental health problems were concerns, but so was the pandemic and wanting to stay near hospitalized family members. [NPR / Shalina Chatlani and Aubri Juhasz]
• Ida, which is quickly weakening, has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it moves through Mississippi. Central Alabama and the western Florida panhandle are still projected to receive up to 15 inches of rain, but by the time the storm reaches the mid-Atlantic states, it is only expected to dump 3 to 6 inches. [The Weather Channel]

US drone strike reportedly killed civilians

• In retaliation for attacks at Kabul airport that killed service members as well as civilians, the US military launched a retaliatory drone strike over the weekend against suspected militants of ISIS-K, the ISIS offshoot in Afghanistan. [NPR / Scott Neuman and Deepa Shivaram]
• The strike, which occurred two days before the military is expected to leave Afghanistan, exploded a vehicle carrying suicide bombers en route to Kabul airport, according to the US military. [AP]
• But multiple reports say the strike also killed 10 civilians in Kabul, including children. The military acknowledged the reports of civilian deaths and said they would look into it further. [Washington Post / Susannah George]
• The Biden administration had been working on a new policy to govern drone warfare as an attempt to end “forever wars,” requiring interagency assessment of new strikes. But the situation in Afghanistan has complicated the rollback of Trump-era guidelines, which were less stringent. [NYT / Charlie Savage]

The Supreme Court strikedown of the eviction moratorium will leave 750,000 households at risk of eviction, according to estimates by Goldman Sachs. [Axios / Ivana Saric]

• Nearly 10 states have either already implemented or are looking into creating vaccine credentials for access to indoor activities and to counteract the burgeoning counterfeit vaccine card market. [Politico / Ben Leonard]
• The European Union is recommending removing the US from its list of countries that it is considered safe to travel from, which could impose quarantine and testing restrictions or a pause on nonessential travel for American travelers. [The Hill / Nathaniel Weixel]
• Actor Ed Asner, who played Lou Grant in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and voiced Carl in Up, died at age 91. [Vulture / Rebecca Alter]

"I am certain that as the day goes on we will have more deaths.”

[Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on the expected death toll of Hurricane Ida]

Writer Mae Rice goes to Starbucks every day. She tells us why she has no plans to stop. [Spotify]

Read more from Vox

Should vaccinated people worry about long Covid?

Pandemic unemployment insurance is ending at maybe the worst time possible

The helplessness of being an Afghanistan war vet

20 years after Aaliyah’s death, her story only feels more tragic

The anti-vax fertility panic, explained

This email was sent to you. Manage your email preferences or unsubscribe. If you value Vox’s unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring contribution.

View our Privacy Notice and our Terms of Service.

Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Floor 11, Washington, DC 20036.
Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved.