The Blackout on Interstate 10

On August 29, 2021, Hurricane Ida slammed into Port Fourchon, Louisiana, with 150-mile-per-hour winds. By nightfall, the entire city of New Orleans lost power. Over a million people sat in total darkness — no streetlights, no air conditioning, no cell service. For nine days, residents wondered if help would ever come. Maria Gutierrez, a grandmother in the Gentilly neighborhood, told a reporter she spent those first nights on her porch, unable to sleep, fanning herself in the suffocating heat.…