Hurricane Ida lashes Louisiana, knocking out power in New Orleans

Hurricane Ida blasted the Louisiana coast on Sunday, with the eye of one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the US coming ashore near the barrier island of Grand Isle with violent winds of 150 mph.

Hurricane Ida plowed into Louisiana from the Gulf of Mexico as a fierce Category 4 storm on Sunday, lashing the coast with 150 mile-per-hour winds, torrential downpours and pounding surf that submerged much of the shoreline under several feet of water. Sunday night, the sheriff's office in Ascension Parish reported the first US fatality from the storm - a person killed by a fallen tree near Baton Rouge, the state capital.