'Human toll was tremendous': Ida's death count rises while 600,000 still lack power

NEW YORK - Hurricane Ida's death toll continued to rise on Sunday, with many in the U.S. Northeast holding out hope for people missing in the floodwaters, while in Louisiana nearly 600,000 customers still lacked power a week after the storm made landfall.

Ida slammed into Louisiana on Aug. 29 as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 150 mph (240 kph), and the latest death toll there rose to at least 13 people on Sunday. The storm weakened as it moved north but still unleashed flash flooding on the East Coast that killed at least 50 more people, according to updated numbers on Sunday. Ida's record-breaking rainfall of 3.1 inches (7.8 cm) per hour on Wednesday, recorded in New York City's Central Park, sent walls of water cascading through businesses, public transportation systems and 1,200 homes, causing more than $50 million in damages, Governor Kathy Hochul said.