LIVE updates: 4 dead, 1M still without power after Hurricane Ida

Here's the latest on Hurricane Ida:

• Rescuers have combined to save at least 671 people, according to Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards
• Officials reported four deaths related to the storm
• Storm downgraded to a tropical depression
• More than 1 million customers without power in Louisiana and Mississippi
• Scores of coastal Louisiana residents are still trapped by floodwaters and pleading to be rescued
• Ida’s 150-mph winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland U.S.
• Ida hit Louisiana the exact day Hurricane Katrina devastated the state 16 years ago

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana — The levees held. The power grid did not. And now comes the scorching heat.

Louisiana communities battered by Hurricane Ida are now dealing with the possibility of weeks without power in the stifling, late-summer heat.

Ida ravaged the region’s power grid, leaving 1 million people and businesses in Louisiana without power. The entire city of New Orleans is dark and officials say they don't know when power would return.

The New Orleans airport remained closed to commercial flights for a third day.

Ida, which made landfall Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane, has already contributed to four deaths - including two people killed when Ida's torrential rains washed out a highway in Mississippi and seven vehicles plunged into the 20-foot hole.

Hundreds of people have been rescued, but search-and-rescue crews haven't been able to access some of the hardest-hit areas, so it's not yet clear how many residents might be still be trapped by flooding or debris.

Many local officials have urged those who evacuated not to come home yet, citing downed power lines, impassable roads and potential hindrances to rescue workers.

"Many of the life supporting infrastructure elements are not present, are not operating right now," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Tuesday. "Please don't come home before they tell you that it's time."

The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for southern Louisiana and Mississippi from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday. More than 2 million people in the area were under the advisory, meteorologist Michael Guy said.

That means some residents who stayed and rode out the storm will face heat indices of up to 105 degrees without air conditioning. Heat is the No. 1 weather-related cause of fatalities in the U.S., the NWS said.

Winds from my shot here on Canal Street are getting wild. #nola #ida - see you soon on @ABCWorldNews with @DavidMuir pic.twitter.com/xtDXgh16n5

— Ginger Zee (@Ginger_Zee) August 29, 2021