A WIFE desperately tried to save her husband after he was killed by an alligator while wading through Hurricane Ida floodwaters, according to police.
The 71-year-old victim had gone to check on his property in Louisiana when he was attacked and put in a "death roll" by the beast, cops confirmed.
Cops said the man is still reported missing, but an investigation had been launched into his possible death.
Erika Ferrando of WWLTV tweeted that officers from the St Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office (STPSO) in Covington were investigating a death after “a woman called saying an alligator attacked her husband and he did not survive.”
The victim was believed to be in his shed, “which had several feet of water in it” when his wife reportedly heard a "commotion” and found the alligator attacked him, cops said.
The woman then pulled him onto stairs and left to get help but on returning back, his body was nowhere to be seen.
His body has not yet been found, and "large alligators are common in this area," Ferrando said.
Investigators reportedly said the man's arm had been "bitten off."
Most read in The US Sun
STPSO Captain Lance Vitter said: "[Investigators have] been out here for four-five hours and they said they were called about a gentleman being attacked by an alligator.
"They get out here and learn that [there is] nobody but they could see signs of blood – that somebody was attacked so they've been investigating thoroughly.
"They still, unfortunately, have not been able to locate his body.
"The body is one of the most – if not the most – important thing of an investigation concerning a death.
"We don't have a body so we can't officially classify this gentleman as deceased."
DOLPHIN SPOTTED
Meanwhile, floodwaters from Hurricane Ida, which has been downgraded to a tropical depression, seemingly caused a dolphin to swim in a body of water in a Slidell, Louisiana, neighborhood, according to WDSU.
The outlet shared a video from a viewer who said she took it while assessing the damage from the storm in her neighborhood.
Earlier, an unnamed male was found dead after trying to drive his car through similar high waters likely caused by flooding in New Orleans.
The Louisiana Department of Health reported the death, making him the second person to have died due to Hurricane Ida.
Another male was previously revealed to have died in the storm as well – a 60-year-old was crushed to death when his car was hit by a tree in Ascension Parish, according to officials.
That number may climb as the region cleans up after the wrath of Ida.
DEATH TOLL RISING
"There’s been at least one confirmed death and that number is likely to grow,” President Joe Biden said earlier on Monday.
"We’ve got a million people in Louisiana without power.”
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards also said that he expects Ida's death toll to "go up considerably throughout the day."
“We have one confirmed death, but I don't want to mislead anyone,” he told MSNBC previously.
"Robust search and rescue is happening right now, and I fully expect that death count will go up considerably throughout the day."
Read More on The US Sun
He called the damage from the storm "catastrophic."
Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, 16 years after Hurricane Katrina to the exact day.
