Fast-moving Zeta slams La.
Breaks record as 5th named storm to hit state in 2020
NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Zeta slammed into storm-weary Louisiana on Wednesday with New Orleans squarely in its path, threatening to push up to 9 feet of sea water inland and batter homes and businesses with fierce winds in a Gulf Coast region already pounded by multiple storms this year.
The storm is the fifth named storm of the year to make landfall in Louisiana, a record for a single season, beating out 2002.
Some roads were flooded near the coast, where forecasters said Zeta was making landfall around Terrebonne Bay near Cocodrie, an unincorporated fishing village at the end of a highway.
Rain pelted the French Quarter in New Orleans, and streams of water ran off roofs. Trees whipped back and forth in the wind, though a few people were still out on Bourbon Street with umbrellas or in slow-moving cars. The iconic street cars were idled and City Hall closed, Mayor La Toya Cantrell said.
Zeta had top sustained winds of 110 as a Category2 hurricane and was the 27th named storm of a historically busy Atlantic hurricane season — with over a month left before it ends.
Tropical storm warnings were issued as far away as the north Georgia mountains. New Orleans has been in the warning areas of seven previous storms that veered east or west this
season. Zeta was staying on course.
“I don’t think we’re going to be as lucky with this one,” city emergency director Collin Arnold said.
Zeta had been predicted to hit as a relatively weak Category 1 hurricane, but Louisiana residents awoke to updated forecasts predicting a Category 2 at landfall around the southeastern part of the state.
“The good news for us — and look, you take good news where you can find it —the storm’ s forward speed is 17 mph. That’s projected to increase, and so it’s going to get in and out of the area relatively quickly, and then we’re going to be able to assess the damage more quickly,” Gov. John Bel Edwards told The Weather Channel.
Officials urged people to take precautions and prepare to shelter in place, and a business-as-usual atmosphere in the morning in New Orleans diminished as the storm neared and grew stronger. Traffic slowed, and restaurants and coffee shops shut down.
“This year, the storms have been coming back-toback. They’ve been avoiding New Orleans but finally decided to come,” cookie shop worker Curt B rum field said as he stowed empty boxes in trash cans outside and others boarded up the windows.
The winds were picking up and water was rising above the docks in Jean Lafitte, a small fishing town south of New Or leans that takes its name from a French pirate. Workers drove truckloads of sand to low-lying areas where thousands of sand bags were already stacked for previous storms.
“We’re going to get a lot of water fast,” said the mayor, Tim Kerner Jr. “I’m optimistic regarding the tidal surge because of the speed of the storm, but we’re not going to take it for granted.”
Zeta could lash the northern Gulf Coast with wind, rain and storm surge more than 150 miles east of New Orleans.
In Mississippi, the city of Pass Christian ordered all boats out of the harbor, and Dauphin Island, Alabama, shut off water and sewer service in areas that typically are swamped in storms.
New Orleans officials announced that a turbine that generates power to the city’s aging drainage pump system broke down Sunday, with no quick repair in sight. There was enough power to keep the pumps operating if needed, but little excess power to tap if other turbines fail, officials said.
Officials said they were running through contingencies should there be other equipment problems. Forecasts called for anywhere from 2 to 6 inches of rain to fall in the New Or leans area, but Zeta’s pace could mitigate the flood threat.
By Wednesday afternoon, Zeta’s top winds had risen to just shy of a major, Category 3 hurricane, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.