Hurricane Ida makes landfall in Louisiana

The president of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, Archie Chaisson III, said in a news conference that parts of the parish will be without water, "for some part of the forseeable future," after a water main line break.

Chaisson also said that he hoped that in the coming hours, the wind and rain would die down enough that they would start being able to get to people that may be in need of rescue. 

Rescues, he said, would remain their first priority. 

In the coming days, Chaisson said they would first focus on getting roads cleared. The Parish would also be assessing their pump stations "at first light."

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told CNN Sunday night that Hurricane Ida is lashing his state and will continue to cause damage through the night.

Edwards said that he's aware of calls for help — especially in Jefferson Parish where a mandatory evacuation was issued Thursday — but conditions will not allow for emergency crews to respond yet.

"At the height of a hurricane you can't get first responders out because it's just simply too dangerous. The wind speeds don't allow for that," he explained. "Just as soon as we can, we will be engaged in very robust search and rescue operations."

There are 21 urban search and rescue teams from about 15 states ready to search when the storm calms, Edwards said. 

But he warned that the storm is far from over, noting that it hasn't reach I-10 yet and the expected wind and rain, which could be 20 to 24 inches in those areas, is likely to cause further damage in the state.

"Nobody is out of the woods in southeast Louisiana yet. We'll be dealing with this until sometime after midnight," Edwards said, adding that the full extent of damage won't be known until the sun comes up.

In an updated tweet Sunday night, energy provider Entergy says the power outage currently impacting all of Orleans Parish — including the City of New Orleans — was caused by “a load imbalance to the company’s transmission and generation.” 

“We’re making every effort to learn more and rectify,” Entergy says.

Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said every road in the parish is impassable at this hour, and agencies are unable to respond to calls for service at this time.

Webre joined CNN Sunday night after video emerged of Hurricane Ida pummeling the roof of a nearby hospital.

The Lady of the Sea General Hospital in Galliano, Louisiana, is stable after a portion of the facility’s roof was ripped off as Ida came ashore earlier in the day, Webre said.

There are still about ten patients in the hospital, the administrator and staff are still able to continue to care for those patients, and they were able to safely relocate to a lower floor, Webre said.  

Two of the three hospitals in Lafourche Parish sustained damage in Sunday’s epic storm, the sheriff added.

The county was also forced to relocate their emergency operations center to a different building after their first building’s roof began to leak earlier in the day on Sunday, Webre told CNN. 

The Sewage and Water Board of New Orleans says the Parish-wide power outage is affecting its ability to operate its sewer pumping stations.

New Orleans residents need to begin limiting water usage at home, "in order to prevent sewage backups.

The board said they have obtained backup power for some of the stations, but they can only mobilize them, "when it is safe to traverse the city." 

Currently, the Board said they are mustering all of their self-generated power sources to continue operating their stormwater draining, and drinking water pumping, operations.

"Although we have lost all Entergy power, our teams are working quickly and decisively to make up for this with our self-generated power sources," the statement said. "The Entergy loss of power is a significant loss of power for our 60 hz pumps and the 25 hz pumps we power through the frequency changers, but we are using our self-generated sources of power to drain stormwater and pump drinking water into the city."

The center of Hurricane Ida is 30 miles west of New Orleans, according to a 9 p.m. ET update from the National Hurricane Center.

Ida maintains Category 3 strength, but has weakened slightly with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph.

Hurricane-force winds continue to move through southern Louisiana along with heavy rain producing flash flooding.

Moments ago, regional energy provider Entergy moments ago reported all of Orleans Parish is without power “due to catastrophic transmission damage” caused by Hurricane Ida.

The news came from the City of New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, which shared the Entergy alert.

Jefferson Parish has issued a boil water advisory for the entire east bank of the parish, a tweet from the government said Sunday.

The advisory was issued "due to the loss of pressure in the distribution system," according to the tweet. Jefferson Parish is west and south of New Orleans.

Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng told CNN earlier that trees had fallen and their roots had come up, damaging water mains and causing the system to lose pressure.

All customers on the east bank are advised to continue to boil their water until the advisory has been rescinded, the tweet said. 

Earlier today, St. Charles Parish issued a precautionary water boil advisory, according to an emergency alert obtained by CNN. It came after officials received numerous reports of leaks.

All of Orleans Parish — which is the city of New Orleans — is without power, according to NOLA Ready, New Orleans' emergency preparedness campaign.

If anyone in the parish has power, it's coming from a generator, NOLA Ready says.

Across Louisiana, more than 700,000 customers are without power as Hurricane Ida continues to pound the coastal state.

Power outages are expected to continue increasing as the storm moves inland.

St. Bernard Parish president Guy McInnis tells CNN that he has reports of 22 barges that have broken loose because of Hurricane Ida.

McInnis says that although he is not worried about the barges hitting a levee and damaging it, he is worried that they may hit other infrastructure in the Parish. 

Specifically, McInnis is concerned about the barges damaging the Parish's water intake and refinery infrastructure. Because the winds are still very high, McInnis says the Coast Guard is waiting for the winds to die down before they can try and moor the loose barges.

Aside from the loose barges, McInnis says that they continue to be inundated with wind and rain as Hurricane Ina continues to lash the Parish. 

He said that the wind has been nothing like he's ever seen.