With sweltering heat not expected to let up any time soon, and six heat-related deaths in New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell declared a weather emergency.
"My administration filed and I signed an emergency declaration for the ongoing unprecedented heat through October 1st of 2023," Cantrell said Tuesday. "We do understand and we recognize that threat has become an unparalleled ongoing crisis for the city of New Orleans."
City officials cite the heat as the reason for at least six deaths in the city.
Brian Schott with the National Weather Service New Orleans says there's never been a heat wave like this.
"This is not a typical New Orleans summer and no person alive has ever experienced a summer like this in the city," said Schott. "The airport has never recorded five days in a row of 98 or higher, and we broke that record yesterday. We have broken or tied record high temperatures in the last six days."
Mayor Cantrell said the elderly, the poor, and the homeless are particularly vulnerable to the extreme heat.
