Hurricane Ida expected to gain strength rapidly, strike Louisiana.

Forecasters grew increasingly confident Friday that Texas will largely be spared from the impacts of Hurricane Ida, another near miss for the Houston region.

The storm was forecast to cross Cuba and then strengthen rapidly into perhaps a Category 4 hurricane as it barrels over warm Gulf of Mexico waters, aiming for Louisiana.

“The ingredients are really favorable for this thing to intensify over the weekend,” Dan Reilly, a meteorologist with the Houston/ Galveston National Weather Service office, said in a recorded briefing. “So a very serious situation for our neighbors to the east.”

Impacts to Texas were expected to be minimal as Ida neared, including increased surf and swelling along beaches Sunday and perhaps minor coastal flooding around high tide, Reilly said.

Tropical storm-force wind gusts were also possible Sunday evening east of Houston in Chambers County, Liberty County and Bolivar Peninsula, but not likely.

It wasn’t a good weekend for Gulf fishing, Chambers County emergency officials told their residents. They urged everyone to keep Louisiana in mind: “Our good fortune is at the expense of their misfortune,” an email update read.

Warnings for Louisiana residents were severe. They brought a reminder of the risk all on the Gulf coast face with every hurricane season, especially as climate change is expected to make hurricanes more likely to be stronger.

Ida was expected to make landfall as a “significant hurricane” late Sunday in Louisiana, the same day that Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005. The city was among a portion of the coast under a hurricane warning for Ida. Residents outside of the levees were under a mandatory evacuation.

National Hurricane Center forecasters warned that the growing storm could bring severe winds, heavy rain and life-threatening storm surge as high as 10 to 15 feet along a portion of the Louisiana coast.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement Friday saying the state’s resources were on stand-by and warning Texans to be prepared in case the path shifted, which wasn’t expected.