Hurricane Ida plunges New Orleans into darkness amid Louisiana flooding

NEW ORLEANS: Hurricane Ida pounded Louisiana after sweeping ashore from the Gulf of Mexico, flooding wide areas under heavy surf and torrential rains as fierce winds toppled trees and power lines, plunging New Orleans into darkness after nightfall.

The storm, though greatly diminished as it churned inland toward western Mississippi early on Monday, was expected to continue unleashing heavy downpours "likely to result in life-threatening" flooding, the National Hurricane Center said. Sunday night, the sheriff's office in Ascension Parish reported the first known U.S. fatality from the storm, a 60-year-old man killed by a tree falling on his home near Baton Rouge, the state capital.