Nate makes landfall along Gulf Coast
New Orleans — Hurricane Nate, after rushing north at a record clip and raking the Gulf Coast with light winds and heavy rains Saturday, made landfall just after darkness fell at the mouth of the Mississippi River, in the latest of a series of deadly storms this season.
Officials repeatedly warned residents to take the storm seriously, in a repeat of a drill that caused thousands of evacuations from Louisiana in August. By early evening Saturday, Nate had maximum wind speeds of 90 mph and threats of storm surge up to 11 feet. Mandatory evacuations were put in place for parts of New Orleans, and communities across Mississippi and Alabama opened shelters for residents.
Cities along the Mississippi coast such as Gulfport and Biloxi were on high alert. Some beachfront hotels and casinos were evacuated. Rain began falling on the region Saturday and forecasters called for 3 to 6 inches with as much as 10 inches in some isolated places.
Nate weakened slightly and was a Category 1 storm with maximum winds of 85 mph when it made landfall in a sparsely populated area of Plaquemines Parish. Forecasters had said it was possible that it could strengthen to a Category 2, but that seemed less likely as the night wore on.
Nate has already been blamed for 25 deaths in Central America as it swept through the Gulf of Mexico last week. It is the ninth hurricane to form in the Atlantic this season, which is the highest total
since the infamous 2012 season that featured Hurricane Sandy.
Here, longtime residents, especially those who had survived Katrina in 2005, seemed to be listening, stocking up on water, food and gasoline. But on Saturday afternoon and into the evening, the streets in the French Quarter were full of tourists.
Brenda Rushton from Toronto laughed joyfully as she took shelter under a Bourbon Street balcony, pretending to give a news update on Nate to her two sisters.
“It’s on my bucket list to be in a hurricane,” the 55-yearold exclaimed. The women spent the morning drinking hurricane cocktails at Pat O’Brien’s down the street. They planned to ride out the rest of Nate from their hotel bar.
“You party till you can’t party any more in New Orleans,” said native New Orleanian Kay Hayes. Earlier Saturday morning, she was directing several thousands of people on a breast cancer cure walk. “This is who we are. We’ll take care of each other.”
That sentiment is what New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu tried to encourage as he declared a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew for the city, warning residents and the 40,000 visitors to stay inside. That curfew was canceled only 90 minutes into it, after the National Weather Service changed the city’s forecast to a tropical storm, rather than hurricane, warning.
“This storm should not bring us anything we are not prepared to handle, presuming we all cooperate,” he said Saturday morning from a new hurricane-hardened fire station in the rural eastern portion of the city. Landrieu urged residents to avoid the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, which sometimes draws daredevil surfers after a storm. He earlier declared an evacuation from three neighborhoods that lie outside the levees that protect the rest of the city.
“This is one of the most vulnerable areas of the city,” he said under glowering skies. “You are at high risk if you are on this side of the flood wall ... and you’ve got an acute risk tonight.”
But Landrieu’s rhetoric had limited impact; Nancy Bell, president of the Venetian Isles homeowners association, said about half of the 275 homes there remained occupied.
“In Katrina, we had an 18-foot storm surge here, and water didn’t get into my main living area,” said the 25-year resident who elevated her house after Katrina, put up hurricane shutters and has a generator with extra fuel. “From what they’re saying, this is likely to be a hit-andrun storm. It would take you longer to get away.”
Landrieu said although 11 of the 120 city’s drainage pumps were not operating, it is enough to keep most of the city dry. The city did not expect major rainfall totals, in part because Nate was tracking east of the city.
Officials have been in contact with every nursing home in New Orleans, he said, to ensure each one has generators and fuel. The city has also made a major sweep of known homeless encampments.
The U.S. Coast Guard suspended port operations from New Orleans to Mobile. Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a midday news conference that he spoke with President Donald Trump, who promised him that federal resources were at the ready. Trump had signed a pre-storm emergency declaration to empower FEMA to coordinate relief efforts. The state National Guard, meanwhile, has mobilized 1,300 troops and positioned high-water vehicles, boats and other vehicles throughout the area.