By Ramon Antonio Vargas
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — With paramedics temporarily sidelined by high winds, New Orleans police officers put a stabbing victim inside of a patrol cruiser and brought her to the hospital as Hurricane Ida began its unforgiving march through the region Sunday.
Officers encountered the victim while responding to a 911 call about a woman having been stabbed in the back at an apartment in the 12300 block of North Interstate 10 Service Road in New Orleans East about 2:40 p.m. The city’s corps of paramedics had by then suspended operations as sustained winds from Ida ramped up in intensity, as is standard, so officers put the woman in a patrol car and took her to New Orleans East hospital for treatment, authorities said.
Police didn’t immediately identify a suspect in the stabbing or discuss a possible motive. Details on the woman’s medical condition weren’t available either. But trauma victims who are critically injured are typically brought to University Medical Center in Mid-City.
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Ida made landfall in Louisiana just east of Houma about 11:55 a.m. Sunday as a powerful Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour.
The storm has weakened slowly as it has moved inland, kicking up strong wind speeds in New Orleans and the surrounding area, with forecasters warning residents that they could experience still potent winds of 90 mph or more during the evening hours of Sunday.
Ida had caused more than 600,000 power outages in southeast Louisiana as of about 5:50 p.m., most of which were in the New Orleans area. Communities across the region had reported damage to buildings and numerous downed trees at that time as well.
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