Communities along the US Gulf coast are braced for a major hurricane over the weekend as Tropical Storm Ida was upgraded to a hurricane on Friday afternoon and was barreling towards the US.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Ida had become a hurricane and made landfall in Cuba, with top winds of 75 mph.
Ida’s center made landfall on Cuba’s Isle of Youth when it was declared a hurricane Friday afternoon.
In due course, Louisiana, especially New Orleans, will be in the storm’s path and the agency warned of increased risk of life-threatening weather conditions in that region from Sunday evening into Monday morning.
The NHC cautioned on Friday that the storm would rapidly intensify before reaching the US and could make landfall as a strong category 3 hurricane on the Gulf coast with winds of up to 120mph.
Hurricane warnings were issued across coastal communities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, along with the cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge on Thursday night as Louisiana’s governor, John Bel Edwards, declared a state of emergency.
The NHC said on Friday morning that there was increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge with potential inundation of 7-11ft above sea level between Morgan City in Louisiana and Ocean Springs in Mississippi.
🌀 8/27/21 10AM CT Tropical Storm Ida Update: The track of Ida has shifted just the slightest bit to the west. Otherwise SE LA and Coastal MS continue to be under a Hurricane Watch and Storm Surge Watch. Ida will enter the Gulf tonight/early tomorrow. #MSwx #LAwx pic.twitter.com/L2KggUNMwH
— NWS New Orleans (@NWSNewOrleans) August 27, 2021
The New Orleans mayor, LaToya Cantrell, told reporters on Friday that she was ordering mandatory evacuation of those living outside of the city’s levee protection system. The levee system encompasses the vast majority of the city, but some smaller neighborhoods, including Lake Catherine and Irish Bayou, are outside.
“The bottom line and the greatest takeaway is we do have a major storm heading our way,” Cantrell said, adding the city was “activating every single resource at our disposal … to respond”.
An NFL preseason game between the New Orleans Saints and the Arizona Cardinals was rescheduled from 7pm on Saturday to noon, as the city braces for storm winds from Saturday evening.
Ida became the ninth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season on Thursday as it formed out in the Caribbean Sea and could lead to life-threatening heavy rain, flash flooding and mudslides in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands as well as Cuba.
The NHC warned the storm could bring rainfall amounts of 8-15in.
“Gulf conditions are conducive for rapid intensification,” said Edwards in a statement on Thursday evening.
“This type of threat contains additional problems because the window to prepare is so short. By Saturday evening, everyone should be in the location where they intend to ride out the storm,” he added.
Sunday also marks the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in Louisiana, which decimated New Orleans and other coastal communities back in 2005.
Last year there were 30 named Atlantic storms, including seven major hurricanes, a record high. Experts have linked the climate crisis and global heating to the increased frequency of more powerful and destructive weather systems.
The storm arrives following a summer of extreme weather events in the US, including severe wildfires on the west coast and deadly flooding in Tennessee earlier in the month.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.