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Lili damage may hit $600-million©Associated PressOctober 5, 2002 CHAUVIN, La. -- The remnants of Hurricane Lili spun out of Louisiana and into the Ohio Valley on Friday, leaving behind a trail of muddy misery and tens of thousands of homes without power. Lili was a Category 4 hurricane packing 145-mph winds before it weakened substantially and hit land Thursday. It left ripped-up roofing, felled trees, downed power lines, mud and debris along a coast soaked by last week's Tropical Storm Isidore. The Insurance Information Institute in New York said claims from the storm could reach $600-million. State Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom said the storm dealt a heavy blow to Louisiana's sugarcane, cotton and soybean crops. Some 500,000 customers in Louisiana lost power during the storm, and 219,000 were out Friday, state officials said. Utility officials said it could be several days before damage is repaired. Lili, blamed for a dozen deaths in the Caribbean, took no lives and caused few injuries along the Gulf Coast. But it swamped many low-lying areas in the bayou country southwest of New Orleans with a storm surge and 8 inches of rain. One good result of the back-to-back storms is a tapering off of the state's West Nile cases. Louisiana had six new West Nile virus cases last week, it's lowest weekly total since the epidemic began. "I am hopeful that this signals the end of the outbreak," Dr. Raoult Ratard said. He said mosquitoes became inactive during Tropical Storm Isidore last week and Hurricane Lili this week, interrupting transmission of the virus, which has infected 293 people in the state and killed 14.
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