Authorities in Louisiana and other areas of the US Gulf Coast issued increasingly alarming warnings on Saturday as Hurricane Ida, which could carry winds of up to 210km / h, moves at unexpected speed into the area of New Orleans.
“Ida is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane as it approaches the northern Gulf Coast on Sunday,” the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, adding that preparations for the storm should “accelerate until its ending”.
Tropical-storm-force winds will hit the area Saturday afternoon and Ida is expected to make landfall in Louisiana as a powerful Category 4 hurricane Sunday night.
In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell warned residents to take Ida very seriously. “Time is not on our side,” he told a televised news conference on Saturday. “It is growing rapidly, it is intensifying.”
Southern Louisiana was bracing for massive damage and flooding, with rains of up to 50 centimeters forecast in some places, as the storm rages across the Gulf after hitting western Cuba.
Authorities have warned that power outages will occur and could be long-lasting.
“Prolonged loss of power is almost certain,” New Orleans security director Collin Arnold told reporters on Saturday.
By late Saturday morning, Ida had maximum sustained winds of 135 kph and was moving at 25 km / h, the NHC said.
Cantrell had previously called on residents located within the city’s hurricane protection area to take shelter, adding that anyone outside the area planning to leave must “do immediately.”
Sunday marks the 16th anniversary of Katrina, the devastating hurricane that flooded 80% of New Orleans, leaving 1,800 dead and billions of dollars in property damage.
Since then, the city has substantially strengthened its protective levee system.
Cantrell said that to avoid the chaos that followed Katrina, with thousands of people stranded by flooding, the city has rented 125 buses for post-storm evacuations.
On Saturday there was heavy traffic on the roads to leave the area.
The US National Weather Service is forecasting a “potentially deadly storm surge” when the hurricane makes landfall along the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi, warning of “catastrophic wind damage.”
This is the second-highest level on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, with a minimum wind force of 209 kilometers per hour.
Louisiana declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the storm.
Authorities have already ordered mandatory evacuations outside the levee-protected areas of New Orleans and flood-prone coastal towns on the state’s coast, such as Grand Isle.
The declaration of a state of emergency, approved by President Joe Biden, will channel supplemental federal funds and aid to the southern state to strengthen its emergency preparedness and response efforts.
The hurricane made landfall on Friday night in western Cuba with category 1, with maximum sustained winds close to 128 km per hour.
The storm downed trees, damaged roofs and caused power lines to fall, causing widespread power outages, the website of the official newspaper Granma reported.
Meanwhile, Category 1 hurricane Nora was approaching the state of Jalisco, on Mexico’s central Pacific coast, the NHC said, warning of “life-threatening flash floods and landslides.”
Last week, a rare tropical storm hit the northeast coast of the United States, leaving thousands of residents without power, uprooting trees and causing record-breaking rainfall.
Scientists have warned of an increase in the number of strong cyclones as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities.
Featured image: Storm Ida has strengthened into a hurricane as it barrels toward Cuba and the US Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said Friday. (Photo by ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP via Getty Images)