As Hurricane Ida leaves behind devastation and flooded neighborhoods, rescuers save hundreds across Louisiana - CNN

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(CNN)Viewing the aftermath of Hurricane Ida from the air, US Coast Guard Vice Adm. Steven Poulin saw utter devastation.

"It was catastrophic," he told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." "My heart breaks for the people in Louisiana."

Poulin said the pictures he's seen in the media don't reveal the extent of the storm's wrath.

Officials have said at least two people died because of Sunday's Category 4 hurricane, but that's a number the governor said he expects will rise.

In Louisiana on the day after the storm, some neighborhoods were underwater and many streets were full of debris.

More than 1 million homes and businesses were without power, and that could be the case for many residents for days or weeks.

And Ida, now a slow-moving tropical depression over Mississippi, is still threatening to flood communities not just in the Deep South but also into the Tennessee and Ohio valleys as it crawls north over the next few days.

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In Louisiana, rescue and recovery efforts were well underway in parts of the state where Ida slogged through for hours as a Category 4 hurricane.

In St. John the Baptist Parish, where 17 inches of rain and 5 feet of storm surge flooded the area just northwest of New Orleans, nearly 800 people had to be rescued Monday.

"This is one of the worst natural disasters I've ever seen in St. John," parish President Jaclyn Hotard said.

While damage was immense, there were no reports of any deaths, she said.

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Communities hit by Ida could see power outages that last weeks

The good news for Louisiana, according to Gov. John Bel Edwards, was none of the state's levees failed, though some were overtopped.

The governor said that, while Ida was an extremely catastrophic hurricane, the "silver lining" was that the state's levee systems performed extremely well, particularly the one in the metropolitan New Orleans Area.

"There were a few smaller levees that were overtopped, to some degree, and for some duration of time and that did result in some people's homes are being flooded," Edwards said. "But they did not fail."

Still, storm damage had left more than 1 million customers in Louisiana without power as of Monday night, according to PowerOutage.US.

A boat carries people in a flooded area of Highway 51 near LaPlace, Louisiana, on Monday morning.

Entergy Louisiana said some of its customers could be without power for three weeks.

"While 90% of customers will be restored sooner, customers in the hardest-hit areas should plan for the possibility of experiencing extended power outages," the company said.

Without power for things such as air conditioning in the summer heat, the power outages could be deadly, New Orleans City Councilmember Joe Giarrusso said.

A Facebook post from St. Charles Parish said it was "highly likely" the outages could extend a month.

It was one of the cities and parishes on Monday afternoon that were letting people who evacuated know whether it was safe to return.

"If you evacuated and can stay in place for a few more days, we highly advise it," officials said in the post. "When you do return, you will need to bring everything you need for at least a week including food, ice, water and fuel."

New Orleans also said to wait, tweeting: "If you have evacuated out of #NOLA, we request that you DO NOT RETURN until further notice. There is widespread debris, power remains out, and emergency services are working to respond to those still in the city. We will let you know when it is safe to come home."

St. Bernard Parish announced residents could come back but only if they could deal without electricity for a few days.

Other communities were still trying to assess the damage.

Rescuers hampered by poor phone service

Rescuers were getting numerous reports of people who climbed into attics or onto roofs as waters rose in their homes, especially in parishes just outside New Orleans.

About 15 people were helped off roofs and into boats early Monday in the city of Slidell alone, and rescuers in high-water vehicles still were taking people to safety in the lower side of town in the late morning, Mayor Greg Cromer said.

Because cell phone service was sporadic in much of the region, rescuers sometimes were having to find for themselves who needed help.

"We've had some people that ... waded out (of neighborhoods) and flagged police officers down and told us what is going on," Cromer, whose city is northeast of New Orleans, told CNN on Monday morning.

"Seems like there's hundreds, possibly more, people trapped in their houses, with some extent of water -- from a foot deep to people in the attics," Jordy Bloodsworth, fleet captain of the Louisiana Cajun Navy volunteer rescue group, told CNN earlier Monday morning.