Ida traps Louisianans, shatters the power grid

Ida is now a tropical storm after spending 16 hours as a hurricane over Louisiana and Mississippi.

It has left scores of coastal Louisiana residents trapped by floodwaters and pleading to be rescued, while making a shambles of the electrical grid across a wide swath of the state in the sweltering, late-summer heat.

One of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. mainland has now weakened into a tropical storm as it pushes inland over Mississippi with torrential rain and shrieking winds.

The hurricane made landfall exactly 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi.

Its 150-mph winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland.

No major flooding was reported inside the flood control system that protect New Orleans. But more than one million people were without power and officials warned it could be weeks before the grid is fixed.