Louisiana speeds up evacuations due to Hurricane Ida, worst in centuries

The hurricane will produce a “potentially fatal storm surge, potentially catastrophic damage and flooding from the rains,” he added.

Shops walled up doors and windows and residents evacuated en masse from New Orleans and other towns in Louisiana.

Images posted on social media and on US news channels showed large numbers of people at the airport waiting to board and long lines of cars stuck on the roads leaving the city.

“Everyone is afraid because It is the birthday of Katrina and people didn’t take him seriously back then, ”said Austin Suriano, who helped shut the windows of his father’s watch repair shop.

This Sunday will mark the sixteenth anniversary of Katrina, the devastating hurricane that inundated 80% of New Orleans, claiming 1,800 lives and billions of dollars in damage.

The American President, Joe Biden, he warned that “Ida is turning into a very, very dangerous storm”.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said it would be one of the biggest storms to hit the United States since the 1850s.

Southern Louisiana braces for massive damage and flooding, with rainfall reaching 50cm in places as the storm roars across the gulf after hitting the west Cuba.

“Prolonged loss of power is almost certain,” New Orleans director of security Collin Arnold told reporters on Saturday. “I implore you to take this storm seriously.”

Biden claimed to have sent hundreds of emergency troops in the area, as well as food, water and electric generators.

Shelters have also been put in place, but Louisiana has been one of the states hardest hit by the pandemic, so Biden urged to continue wearing masks and taking precautions.

The US National Weather Service predicts that the storm surge can reach 3.5 meters in New Orleans and five meters around the mouth of the River Mississippi When the hurricane makes landfall

Category 4 is the second highest on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale.

The declaration of state of emergency in Louisiana, approved by Biden, will channel federal funds and help the state strengthen its emergency preparedness and response efforts.

The hurricane made landfall Friday night in western Category 1 Cuba, with maximum sustained winds near 128 km / h.

Warnings about Ida’s arrival inevitably serve as a reminder of Katrina’s bad luck, Edwards said at a press conference.

“It is painful to think that another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida will make landfall on this anniversary,” said the governor of Louisiana.

The big difference is that since then a significant investment has been made in a protection system consisting of dams, valves and pumps.