New Orleans braces for ‘extremely dangerous’ Hurricane Ida

Tens of thousands of residents of New Orleans and coastal Louisiana evacuate the area this Saturday before the Ida’s assault, which is expected to become an “extremely dangerous” hurricane, with sustained winds of up to 225 km / h, before making landfall in the United States on Sunday.

With the memory of what happened it’s right 16 years with Hurricane Katrina, that devastated the city, thousands of New Orleans citizens are swarming northbound freeways while authorities warn of the danger of the rapid strengthening of Ida, which is strengthening in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico after leaving Cuba.

The departure of thousands of people from the coastal zone has caused significant withheld this Saturday and fuel has already started to run out at many places in New Orleans and the remainder of an area where a curfew has been decreed in the parish of Terrebonne, which is on the possible road to Ida.

What will be the first hurricane to make landfall in the United States so far this season in the Atlantic account is already at less than 565 km south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, and it is predicted that it will reach the US coast on Sunday afternoon or overnight as Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, out to a maximum of 5 and measuring hurricanes based on the strength of their winds .

But its greatest danger is water and, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), a A “devastating” storm surge could raise normal sea level up to 15 feet in the Mississippi mouth area.

The National Weather Service of New Orleans warns that the Storm surge, combined with wind gusts as strong as 150 miles per hour, can render areas of southeast Louisiana “uninhabitable”, Due to “Structural damage” that buildings can suffer, “Many of which will be swept away.”

To this we must add big dangerous waves and huge amounts of rain, with an accumulation of up to 50 centimeters in southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi through Monday.

All of this could cause flooding and flooding in this region, warned experts, who anticipated that tornadoes could be recorded from Sunday to Monday morning in the same area.

Mandatory evacuation

The mayor of the town, LaToya Cantrell, on Friday ordered the mandatory evacuation of people living outside the dike system who protect the city against possible flooding, and he recommended that others also leave the area or seek protection.

And this Saturday, Cantrell told a press conference that the the decision to stay or to evacuate must be taken “immediately”, for the “time is not over” for citizenship and Ida will come very soon, and they must all be prepared before tonight.

No less resounding was the governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, who has repeatedly warned that the countdown to evacuate has already started and that residents have until nightfall this Saturday to prepare for Ida’s arrival, which, according to him, will have “serious impacts” on the state.

Edwards has already requested the declaration of emergency state, which was accepted soon after by President Joe Biden to be able to help the region with federal funds and means.

Katrina in memory

Considered one of the worst natural disasters in US history by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Hurricane Katrina in 2005 killed 1,833 people and displaced nearly one million people, losing its properties.

The city, built between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, was almost completely inundated when the dikes of this lake were broken by the strong winds caused by Katrina, which arrived on August 29, 2005 in category 3, while Ida is expected to be force 4.

But now local authorities hope that theThe multi-million dollar investment in the water containment and pumping system averted a possible tragedy on the same day, 16 years later. And they say New Orleans is a “very different city in terms of safety and infrastructure” from what it was 16 years ago.

Louisiana is a region accustomed to the ravages of these powerful tropical storms. Ida also comes nearly a year after Laura made landfall on August 27, 2020 as the strongest hurricane on record in that state, with winds of 240 km / h, and claimed about 40 lives in the United States. .

Now comes Ida, who had previously been through Cuba this Friday, when it made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane and passed through the country to its western end with no deaths reported so far.

(With information from EFE)

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