HOUMA, La. -- New Orleans lifted a nightly curfew Wednesday as the city moved closer to regaining full power 10 days after Hurricane Ida, but hundreds of thousands of people outside the city were still without lights and water and more than a quarter of a million children were unable to return to schools.
The city was left completely in the dark when Hurricane Ida slammed into the Louisiana coast with 150 mph winds on Aug. 29, cutting power to more than a million people statewide. Two days later, New Orleans police and Mayor LaToya Cantrell imposed an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, citing cases of theft and other minor crime. They withdrew the order Wednesday morning but the Police Department said in a statement that it would maintain "increased and focused patrols throughout the city."
Meanwhile, 250,000 students remained out of the classroom, according to state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley. Before Ida, schools around Louisiana had been open despite widespread cases of covid-19, although under a statewide mask mandate for all indoor locations.
"We need to get those kids back with us as soon as we possibly can," Brumley said.
In New Orleans, School Superintendent Henderson Lewis Jr. said damage to schools appeared to be mostly minimal, but that power needs to be restored to all buildings, and teachers, staff and families need to return to the city.
"Now more than ever, our children stand to benefit from the comfort that structured and routine daily schooling can bring," Lewis said in a statement Wednesday. "So, let's all come together to reopen our schools quickly and safely."
Lewis said he expects classes for some will resume as early as next week and that all students will be back a week after that.
No school reopening estimates have been provided for the five parishes that were hardest hit by Hurricane Ida and which are home to about 320,000 people: Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. James, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist. Ten days after the hurricane, 96% of utility customers in those parishes are still without power.
In the Terrebonne Parish city of Houma, bucket trucks with linemen were on every street and as the day progressed there were signs of progress -- street lights began working on busy Grand Caillou road by early afternoon.
Even as power was coming on in parts of Terrebonne Parish, it was of limited use to Coy Verdin. The 52-year-old fisherman was staying at his son's house in Houma. His own bayou-side home was all but destroyed in the storm.
"All the ceilings fell. You can see daylight through the roof," Verdin said. "All we have is basically a shell."
Ida scattered most of his 200 crab traps to parts unknown. "The only thing I have left is my boat and some of my commercial fishing rigging," he said.
Statewide, crews have now restored power to 600,000 of the 902,000 who lost electricity at the peak of Hurricane Ida, Entergy Louisiana President and CEO Phillip May said on a Wednesday conference call with reporters.
In many neighborhoods, homes remain uninhabitable. About 3,200 people are in mass shelters while another 25,000 people whose houses have been damaged are staying in hotel rooms through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's transitional sheltering program.
Ida's death toll in Louisiana rose to 26 people Wednesday, including 11 new deaths reported in New Orleans.
Information for this article was contributed by Jeff Martin of The Associated Press.