“We’re all hot, we’re all sweaty, we all want a shower,” Sheriff Tony Mancuso of the Calcasieu Parish, which includes Lake Charles, said at a news conference on Friday. More than an inconvenience, though, the electrical outages have been deadly, as several people who turned to generators to power refrigerators, lights and air-conditioners have been overcome with fumes. At least seven people have been killed by carbon monoxide from generators, including four members of a family found dead in a home in Lake Charles. The city’s largest hospital, Lake Charles Memorial Hospital Health System, whose phone lines were down, had to evacuate all patients to other hospitals and was operating only its emergency room. The hospital said on its website that pregnant mothers should leave the area because the hospital was not providing obstetric services except in emergencies.

Source: New York Times August 29, 2020 19:18 UTC