Hurricane Delta targets Cancún; Louisiana coast also in its sights
The United States already has endured nine tropical storm or hurricane landfalls during the record-setting 2020 hurricane season, and a 10th significant and rapidly intensifying storm is en route to the battered Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Delta is expected to slam ashore in coastal Louisiana unleashing adangerous combination of damaging wind, flooding rain, and surging ocean water Friday into Saturday.
Before that, the latest predictions show it could be nearly a Category 5 by the time it crashes into Cancun and the Yucatán Peninsula today and remain a powerful Category 3 by the time it reachest he northern Gulf Coast.
On Tuesday morning, Hurricane Delta lurched from a 40mph tropical storm to a 130-mph Category 4 in just over 27 hours.
It would mark the second time this season a Category 4 hurricane has churned over the Gulf of Mexico.
The National Hurricane Center is urging much of the northern Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle to carefully monitor the storm.
Although landfall along the coast of central or eastern Louisiana is most likely, shifts in the track are possible and impacts will be felt at considerable distances from where the center crosses the shore.
New Orleans, which has been sideswiped by several storms this year, is bracing for the possibility of amore direct impact from Delta.
How hard New Orleans is hit will depend on Delta’s exact track. The worst-case scenario would be if the storm makes landfall just to its west.
“While there is large uncertainty in the track and intensity forecasts, there is a significant risk of dangerous storm surge, wind, and rainfall hazards along the coast from Louisiana to the western Florida Panhandle beginning Thursday night or Friday,” the Hurricane Center said.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards decreed states of emergency for their states Tuesday, allowing officials to seek federal aid more quickly if needed later.
The Gulf Coast already has dealt with severe impacts from Hurricanes Laura, Sally, and Hanna this season — not to mention multiple tropical storms, like Marco and Beta.
Theworst of the immediate impact was expected along the resort-studded northeastern tip of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, where hurricane conditions were expected Tuesday night and landfall early today.
From Tulum to Cancún, tourism-dependent communities still soaked by the remnants of Tropical Storm Gamma could bear the brunt of the storm.
In Cancún, long lines snaked from supermarkets, lumber yards and gas stations as people scrambled for provisions under a mostly sunny sky. Officials warned residents should have several days ofwater and food on hand. Boat owners lined up at public ramps to pull their craft out of the water.
Mexico evacuated thousands of tourists and residents from coastal areas along its Riviera Maya. Some 160 shelters were opened in Cancún alone.
Tropical storm warnings have been issued for portions of western Cuba and the Cayman Islands.
The National Hurricane Center still is forecasting Delta to carry Category 4 strength over the central Gulf of Mexico on Thursday afternoon. By Friday, cooler waters and increasingly disruptive mid-level winds will begin to gradually weaken the storm— but not by much. It’s likely to retain power as a Category 2 hurricane upon landfall.
The area at greatest risk for landfall is southern Louisiana, which is very prone to storm surge flooding. The Route 90 corridor in coastal Louisiana, which traverses communities like Morgan City, may have to be partly evacuated.
Wind gusts topping 90 or 100 mph are possible, along with a swathof 6 to10 inches of rain and a dangerous stormsurge near the coast. Tornadoes may become a concern as well.
The worst is expected to come Friday evening into early Saturday for the U.S. Gulf Coast. Thereafter, Delta will weaken quickly as it moves inland, becoming a tropical rainstorm and drenching the lower Mississippi Valley.
The 2020 hurricane season continues to smash and obliterate records, the oceans cranking out tropical storms and hurricanes like a factory.
The high number of systems has forced meteorologists to exhaust their hurricane naming list and revert to the Greek alphabet for only the second time on record. And the pace of this year’s storm formation is unlike anything seen before; the only other time that we’ve reached a storm named Delta, in 2005, it didn’t occur until mid-November.
When Delta makes landfall, it will break the record for most named storms to strike the United States in a calendar year, surpassing the nine that came ashore in 1916.