Louisiana residents still reeling from flooding and damage caused by Hurricane Ida scrambled for food, gas, water and relief from the sweltering heat as thousands of line workers toiled to restore electricity and officials vowed to set up more sites where people could get free meals and cool off.
Power and water outages affected hundreds of thousands of people, many of them with no way to get immediate relief.
Read MoreWith exports in doubt because of hurricane damage to grain elevators near New Orleans, prices for corn, soybeans, and wheat, the most widely planted U.S. crops, fell to their lowest levels in several weeks in futures trading on Tuesday. The fall harvest will begin soon and could glut the U.S. market if foreign sales are disrupted.
Cargill reported “significant damage” to an elevator about 30 miles upstream on the Mississippi River from New Orleans; Cargill has another elevator near New Orleans. Exporter CHS said its grain facility may lack power for weeks while Bunge and ADM were assessing damage to their export facilities, reported Reuters. About 60% of U.S. corn and soybean exports are shipped from the Gulf Coast, it said.
Read MoreGov. John Bel Edwards received word tonight that Pres. Joseph R. Biden has approved his request for a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration due to the severe impacts of Hurricane Ida, a category 4 storm that has caused widespread damage across Louisiana. Ida made landfall early Sunday afternoon in Port Fourchon with winds of 155 miles per hour. As the slow moving storm continues to impact Louisiana, more than 800,000 people are without power statewide. Surge and damaging winds are impacting areas along the coast and moving inland.
Read MoreThe Louisiana Farm Bureau Livestock Advisory Committee is again working to help ranchers through a natural disaster by reengaging its hay clearinghouse in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.
Through the hay clearinghouse, the volunteers and staff of the Louisiana Farm Bureau connect ranchers who need hay or pasture for their cattle with people who have hay to donate, pasture space available or the ability to transport hay.
Read MoreWe are getting a glimpse this morning at the damage done so far by Hurricane Ida. It has been sixteen years to the day since Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans and this storm will be a test for the new levees and pump systems.
The heavy rain and flooding are a major concern for crops and livestock. Louisiana's cotton crop is notably at risk, with nearly 40 percent of the bolls opening.
Read MoreMore than 1 million people across south Louisiana lost power when Hurricane Ida made landfall Sunday afternoon, and utility officials say many areas could remain without electricity for weeks.
Many homes and businesses are relying on generators, and public safety officials say it's important to remember safe and effective ways to operate a generator.
Using a generator incorrectly can result in death. In 2020 during Hurricane Laura, several people in various parishes were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from generators.
Read MoreWhen Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, early Sunday afternoon, it roared in as a Category 4 hurricane with all the destructive power of Mother Nature behind it. The extremely dangerous winds, which got up to 150 mph, knocked out all the power in New Orleans and left a trail of destruction in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The winds were so strong they even managed to reverse the flow of the mighty Mississippi River.
Changing the direction of a river is a natural phenomenon that is rarely seen, deemed "extremely uncommon" by U.S. Geological Survey supervising hydrologist Scott Perrien who spoke to CNN. Perrien remembered that it happened briefly during Hurricane Katrina and now, 16 years to the day since the devastating Hurricane Katrina made landfall, it happened again during Hurricane Ida. It also reportedly happened in 2012 during Hurricane Isaac.
Read MoreA Louisiana fire department is investigating a report of a man who disappeared after being attacked by an alligator in floodwaters caused by Hurricane Ida. St. Tammany Fire Protection said a woman in Slidell saw the gator attack her husband, but after she rushed inside to seek help, the man vanished. Officials said they could not locate the body to determine the cause of death, but they believe the alligator was in the area due to rising waters caused by the storm.
Read MoreCorn prices in Chicago sank to a seven-week low as broken grain elevators and power outages in the U.S.’s busiest agricultural port raised concerns about grain supplies with nowhere to go.
Hurricane Ida left more than 1 million homes and businesses without electricity in southern Louisiana and also shuttered export terminals in New Orleans. Food supply chains were already under severe pressure amid the pandemic, with shortages of everything from packaging to truck drivers.
Read MoreAs cleanup from Hurricane Ida begins, Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) Commissioner Mike Strain, D.V.M., is reminding residents to hire only professional-licensed arborists to perform work on storm-damaged trees.
Read MoreChicago soybean futures edged higher in hesitant trade on Tuesday after reports that Hurricane Ida damaged U.S. grain export facilities, stoking supply concerns in the world's largest exporter.
Corn fell slightly, still pressured by better than expected U.S. crop conditions that sent prices to a one-week low in the previous session, while wheat was slightly lower.
"Hurricane Ida has done considerable damage in the area around New Orleans and Baton Rouge," said Tobin Gorey, director of agricultural strategy at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. "What specific damage has been to U.S. crop export facilities is unclear for now. As is the period of shipping delays."
Read More“I’m sitting here looking out at a lot of the damage, and it’s what you would expect from a Category 4 hurricane: It’s bad,” says Colleen Udell, the president of Cajun Navy Relief. The organization, composed of civilian volunteers who use their personal boats and equipment for rescue during disasters, is one of several groups that have taken on the name “Cajun Navy” since Hurricane Katrina. Now, sixteen years later, they are on the ground (and on the water) responding to those affected by Hurricane Ida.
Read MorePacking 150 mph winds and punishing rains, Hurricane Ida made landfall Sunday, the 16th anniversary of the deadly Hurricane Katrina, leaving all of New Orleans without power.
After crossing the warmest, deepest portion of the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Ida hit the continental United States at Port Fourchon, La., south of New Orleans, at mid-day Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane, the second-highest designation. The storm then moved north into southwestern Mississippi. By Monday morning, Ida was downgraded to a tropical storm as it continued a northward path with winds of about 45 miles per hour.
Read MoreThe Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) will start allowing individuals and businesses to file claims as soon as the President has declared a federal emergency for areas impacted by Hurricane Ida.
Read MoreMike Strain, Louisiana's commissioner of agriculture, told DTN agriculture in his state is "working the problem," in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, but he spent most of Monday working without communications until those came online in the mid-afternoon.
"We probably have a million people without power in southeast Louisiana right now," Strain said. "There's a lot of destruction to the transmission lines."
Farmers far outside the direct path of Hurricane Ida could face higher diesel prices as they move into harvest, as well as early shipping challenges, depending on the extent of time oil production and Gulf Coast ports are down.
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