Authorities fear man, 70, drowned

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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NEW ORLEANS — Authorities feared a 70-year-old man drowned when he tried to help two fishermen stranded in the Mississippi River as Tropical Storm Ida churned ashore Monday, flooding low-lying areas outside levee systems and closing schools and offices in southeast Louisiana.

The man was attempting to rescue two men whose boat had broken down in the Mississippi when a wave knocked him into the river, said Maj. John Marie, a Plaquemines Parish sheriff’s office spokesman. Marie said the unidentified man was not wearing a life jacket and that he feared the man had drowned.

The two boaters the man was trying to rescue were picked up by the Coast Guard, Marie said.

Earlier in the day, the Coast Guard rescued two Chevron Corp. workers from an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico in danger of collapsing in the high seas churned up by Ida. The Chevron workers were rescued at about 5 a.m. after a lift boat tied to the rig broke loose and smashed into the rig. The workers feared the rig might collapse, the Coast Guard said. Chevron said the workers were not injured and that the rig had not collapsed.