New Zealander Dean Carey and his family are hunkering down in New Orleans, on holiday from their home in New York. Video / Supplied
A 71-year-old man is missing, feared dead, after an alligator ripped off his arm as he waded through floodwater outside his Louisiana home following Hurricane Ida.
The pensioner was standing in metres of water in his garden shed when he was attacked, and called out to his wife for help.
She managed to drag him to their front steps and then set off by boat to get medical supplies because there was no phone signal after the power grid was knocked out.
When she returned to the home in Slidell, north of New Orleans, her husband had disappeared.
The local sheriff's office used boats and high-water vehicles to search for the man but have not yet found him.
Flood waters surround storm damaged homes in Lafourche Parish, as residents try to recover from the effects of Hurricane Ida. Photo / AP
The couple's house is set in marshland on a wildlife reserve, home to vast numbers of alligators and is one of thousands deluged by floodwater.
Randy Smith of the St Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office warned residents to be "extra vigilant" while walking in flooded areas because the storm may have displaced wildlife, causing alligators and other animals to move closer into neighbourhoods.
At least five people are now known to have died and more than a million people are still without power in Mississippi and Louisiana following one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever hit the United States.
A man died while driving in New Orleans, a woman was found dead in the fishing village of Jean Lafitte, and a man was killed near Baton Rouge when a tree fell on his house.
In Mississippi, two people were killed and 10 were injured when a highway collapsed, causing several vehicles to fall into a 20ft deep trench.
Alligators in Louisiana following hurricane Delta last year. Photo / Twitter
"I've never seen anything in my 23 years in law enforcement like this," Trooper Cal Robertson of the Mississippi Highway Patrol told CNN.
Three people remain in a critical condition.
Homeless couple Angelique Habert, and husband Wilfred Habert, ask for help on a sidewalk as they try to recover from the effects of Hurricane Ida. Photo / AP
Communities beginning the huge task of clearing debris and repairing the damage inflicted by Ida are facing the dispiriting prospect of weeks without electricity in the oppressive, late-summer heat.
Ida ravaged the region's power grid, leaving all of New Orleans and hundreds of thousands of other Louisiana residents in the dark with no clear timeline on when the electricity would come back on.
A news crew reports on the edge of Lake Pontchartrain ahead of approaching Hurricane Ida in New Orleans. Photo / AP
"I can't tell you when the power is going to be restored. I can't tell you when all the debris is going to be cleaned up and repairs made," Governor John Bel Edwards said.
"But what I can tell you is we are going to work hard every day to deliver as much assistance as we can."
The governor added that 25,000 utility workers were on the ground in the state to help restore electricity, with more on the way.
Still, his office described damage to the power grid as "catastrophic," and officials said it could be weeks before electricity is restored in some spots.
On Monday, rescuers in boats, helicopters and high-clearance trucks brought more than 670 people trapped by floodwater to safety.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, a man looks over the damage to his house. Photo / AP
Crews planned to go door to door in hardest hit areas to make sure everyone got out safely.
Also stuck in New Orleans were tourists who didn't get out before the storm. The airport cancelled all incoming and outgoing commercial flights for a third day, saying the lack of power and water meant no air conditioning or toilets were working.
Adding to the misery is the stifling weather.
A heat advisory was issued for New Orleans and the rest of the region, with forecasters saying the combination of high temperatures and humidity made it feel like 41C on Tuesday.
Now downgraded to a tropical storm, Ida has continued to bring heavy rain and flooding to parts of the Tennessee and Ohio valleys. Flash flooding and mudslides are possible around Washington DC on Thursday and in New England on Friday.
