Hurricane blasts Louisiana coast in echoes of Katrina

Hurricane Ida blasted ashore along the Louisiana coast, with the eye of one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US arriving near the barrier island of Grand Isle.

The powerful Category 4 storm made landfall on the same date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier, about 40 miles west of where Category 3 Katrina first struck land.

Arriving with a barometric pressure of 930 millibars, Ida preliminarily goes down as tied for the fifth strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States based on wind speed.

Based on central pressure, it is tied for ninth strongest US landfall.

Ida rapidly intensified overnight as it moved through some of the warmest ocean water in the world in the northern Gulf of Mexico, its top winds grew by 45mph to 150mph in five hours.

Hurricane-force winds started to strike Grand Isle yesterday morning.

Before power was lost on the Louisiana barrier island, a beachfront web camera showed the ocean steadily rising as growing waves churned and palm trees whipped.

More than 100,000 customers had lost power in Louisiana by noon and were without electricity, according to PowerOutage. US, which tracks outages nationwide.

Wind tore at awnings and water began spilling out of Lake Ponchartrain in New Orleans.

Officials there said Ida’s swift intensification from a few thunderstorms to massive hurricane over three days left no time to organise a mandatory evacuation of its 390,000 residents.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell urged residents to leave voluntarily.

Those who stayed were warned to prepare for long power outages amid sweltering heat.

Cars were parked on the median in New Orleans, which is a few feet higher and can protect against potential flooding.

Most businesses were closed, but Breads on Oak, located three blocks from the Mississippi River levee, was open and offering twofor-one deals to get as much of their baked goods sold as possible.

In Port Fourchon, boats and helicopters gathered to take workers and supplies to oil platforms in the ocean.

The port handles about a fifth of the nation’s domestic oil and gas, officials said.

Along with the oil industry, Ida threatened a region already reeling from

a resurgence of Covid-19 infections, due to low vaccination rates and the highly contagious delta variant.

More than two million people live around New Orleans, Baton Rouge and the wetlands to the south.

New Orleans hospitals

planned to ride out the storm with their beds nearly full, as similarly stressed hospitals elsewhere had little room for evacuated patients.

Winds stronger than 115mph were expected soon in Houma, a city of 33,000 that supports oil platforms

in the Gulf and Gulfport, Mississippi, to the east of New Orleans, was seeing the ocean rise and heavy rain bands.

President Joe Biden approved emergency declarations for Louisiana and Mississippi ahead of Ida’s arrival.

A man takes pictures at Lake Ponchartrain as Hurricane Ida nears.