LAKE CHARLES (Louisiana) • Weary residents of coastal Louisiana in the United States have begun cleaning up from wind and water damage inflicted by Hurricane Delta to their already storm-battered region, even as it weakened and moved north-east.
Delta made landfall near the town of Creole in Cameron Parish last Friday as a Category 2 hurricane, packing sustained winds of 160kmh.
Though not as powerful as August's Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm that tore homes and businesses apart, Delta toppled trees and power poles, leaving hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents without power.
The storm weakened to a tropical depression as it moved inland to western Mississippi, according to the National Hurricane Centre, but still carried heavy rain.
Ms Sylvia Pastrano, 65, said the roof of her home in Lake Charles, Louisiana, leaked in the aftermath of the Delta downpour after being initially damaged by Laura. She had positioned three trash cans over her bed to catch the water.
"We were debating whether to leave or not, but my husband has got orthopaedic issues and I do too and we're just too exhausted to even get up and evacuate," she said. "Last night, it was terrifyingthe whistling and whistling."
Delta brought widespread flooding of streets and overflowing of riverbanks, mostly in south-western Louisiana, tracking the path of destruction left by Laura but causing damage over a larger swathe of the Gulf Coast.
Governor John Bel Edwards told a briefing in Baton Rouge last Saturday: "Even if it wasn't quite as powerful as Hurricane Laura, it was much bigger."
Some 3,000 National Guard troops had been called up to distribute relief supplies, clear roads, maintain security and conduct search and rescue operations, he said.
While no deaths have so far been linked to Delta, Mr Edwards said storm-related fatalities often occur in accidents such as falls, during cleanup operations, or from carbon monoxide poisoning from residents using home generators.
About 600,000 of the state's electric customers, 25 per cent of the total, were without power at midday, he added.
But restoration was progressing faster than it did after Laura because Delta's winds were less damaging to the infrastructure, he said.
Laura's winds damaged tens of thousands of homes, leaving roofs across the region dotted with blue tarpaulins. More than 6,000 people were still living temporarily in hotels when Delta struck.
As Delta made its way over the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, energy companies cut back US oil production by about 92 per cent, or 1.7 million barrels per daythe most since 2005's Hurricane Katrina.
REUTERS