Aug 28 - Hurricane Ida intensified over warm Gulf of Mexico waters and took aim at the Gulf Coast on Saturday, prompting dozens of thousands of refugees in Louisiana and offshore energy workers to flee to safety.
Forecasters said it could make a U.S. landfall as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm on the Five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, generating winds of 140 miles per hour heavy downpours and a tidal surge that could plunge much of Louisiana shoreline under several feet of water.
Ida's pace accelerated overnight and carried top winds of 85 mph as it headed northwest, the National Hurricane Center said on Saturday morning. The storm will continue to accelerate over Gulf waters that are several degrees higher than normal before coming ashore late Sunday.
Flooding caused by Ida's storm surge - high water driven by hurricane winds could reach between 10 and 15 feet around the mouth of Mississippi River, with lower levels extending east along adjacent coastlines of Mississippi and Alabama, the NHC said.
Officials ordered online nolaready status 1431297701535158279 widespread evacuations of low-lying and coastal areas, leading to an exodus that led to gasoline stations running dry lines on highways trailing from the shore.
Utilities were bringing extra crews and equipment to prepare to restore electricity after the storm passes. Forecasters anticipate coming winds will cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes in the area.
Lifelong Gulf resident Hailey DeLaune, 29, told Reuters they spent Friday evening in his Gulfport, Mississippi house and gathering provisions to ride out the storm.
Hurricanes have always been a part of my life, said the high school teacher, who was born during the Category 5 hurricane Andrew in 1992. New Orleans Governor John Bel Edwards, whose state is reeling from a public health crisis that stems from a fourth wave of the COVID pandemic – 19 pandemic, urged residents to prepare for the hurricane immediately.
Now is the time to finish your preparations, he told a news conference on Friday. Tomorrow morning, by nightfall, you need to be where you intend to ride out the storm.
Edwards declared a state of emergency and federal president Joe Biden issued a pre-landfall emergency declaration at Edwards' request. It has authorized the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts in the state.
Edwards also said he had authorized activation of all 5,000 troops in the Louisiana National Guard for emergency deployments as needed.
U.S. energy companies reduced offshore gasoline production by nearly 60% and the gasoline refiners were cutting operations at their Louisiana plants on the path of the storm. Some fuel prices rose in anticipation of production losses.
On Friday, Ida smashed into the Caribbean island nation, off the southwestern end of Cuba's tiny Isle of Youth, toppling trees and tearing roofing from dwellings.
Jamaica was flooded after heavy rains, and there were landslides after the passage of the storm. Many roads were impassable forcing some residents to abandon their homes.
The first-degree hurricane Ida, the ninth in the 2021 Washington Hurricane season, may well exceed the strength of Hurricane Laura, the last Category 4 storm to strike Louisiana, by the time it makes landfall, forecasters said.
The region was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, which threw out more than 1,800 people.