Louisiana Governor Says First Responders Won't Dispatch Until 'First Light'

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said first responders won't be able to answer search and rescue calls until daylight Monday with Hurricane Ida making its way across the state, reports The Advocate.

“[I]t's weather dependent and quite frankly, before the weather gets good enough for us to respond it's also going to be dark," he said Sunday. "We will be ready at first light tomorrow morning to go out to those areas that we know already have received the most damaging impacts from the storm.”

The Category 4 hurricane hit the state just before noon Sunday, slamming into Port Fourchon near Grand Isle, with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour and a storm surge of 16 feet. Requests for help have come from people who stayed in the area to weather the storm, but “[N]obody should be expecting that tonight a first responder is going to be able to answer a call for help,” Bel Edwards said. 

He also said athe reason the state says people should be prepared to handle the first 72 hours following a storm on their own, and that “[I]t doesn't help anyone to dispatch first responders on a call if you're actually going to cause the first responder to be in a very bad situation in terms of either getting hurt or killed or just being stuck where they then have to ride it out there or you send somebody else.”

Edwards has called governors from across the country for reinforcements, and the entire Louisiana National Guard has been activated to respond to the aftermath of the storm.

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