US southern states recovering from Ida face new flooding threat

US states still reeling from last week’s powerful Hurricane Ida face slow-moving rain and threat of flash floods.

Parts of the southern United States still grappling with widespread power outages and water-logged homes in the aftermath of deadly Hurricane Ida are facing the threat of more flash floods from slow-moving rain and drenching thunderstorms. Storms capable of producing five to eight centimetres (two to three inches) of rain “in a pretty short period of time” were saturating New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana and Mississippi on Monday, and were expected to continue into the evening, National Weather Service meteorologist Lara Pagano said. “Some of that [rain] will occur over soil that is saturated by Ida, areas that are already sensitive, with any additional heavy rain problematic and leading to flash flooding,” Pagano told the Reuters news agency.