FEMA Administrator: Ida ‘Remained a Category 4 [Hurricane] for Several Hours’

EXCERPT:

KEILAR: "All right. So I mean, this thing hit as a strong category 4. And I know that you’re still trying to assess what that means, but what is your expectation of what that means?"
CRISWELL: "Yeah. It not only hit as a strong category 4, it remained a category 4 for several hours over the southern parts of Louisiana. And so they just got the impacts from the winds, from the significant and intense rainfall as well as that storm surge for several hours. And I don’t think there could have been a worse path for this storm. It’s going to have some significant impacts. We’re already seeing the power outages across the area and the threat isn’t over. As you just heard, as it goes into Mississippi, even Tennessee and West Virginia, there’s still going to be significant rainfall. So those people that are in the storm’s track still need to stay aware of what their risks might be."