MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Tropical Storm Nicholas is inching along the Gulf Coast after hitting Texas yesterday as a hurricane. After, about a quarter-million customers are without power there. One big concern is in southern Louisiana, where the storm is expected to stall and make a tough situation worse. NPR's Frank Morris reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF RAIN POUNDING)
FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE: It is raining buckets off and on in New Orleans today. Nicholas is drenching a vast zone of destruction shredded by Hurricane Ida just two weeks ago. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards says the state still hobbled from that pounding.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHN BEL EDWARDS: ...This storm seriously because we're not in the posture that we would like to be before a storm. We're still responding to the previous one in southeast Louisiana, Ida.
MORRIS: And that response is just getting started. In some bayou communities, upwards of 80% of the homes are currently uninhabitable. United Houma Nation's tribal administrator Lanor Curole says tarps to cover the roofs are in short supply.
LANOR CUROLE: And so there's just water continuing to rain down, causing more damage.
MORRIS: That rain is also causing flooding, as Curole experienced firsthand.
CUROLE: I had to go through some high water because the drains are clogged where they normally would not be.
MORRIS: Nicholas is supposed to linger around Louisiana and Mississippi until Thursday, dropping torrents of rain. It'll also pause urgent recovery efforts after Ida. Some hundred thousand homes and businesses are still waiting to have power restored in the wake of that storm.
Frank Morris, NPR News, New Orleans. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
