Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, early Sunday afternoon as an extremely dangerous, Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph, the National Hurricane Centre said.
Ida, striking on the 16th anniversary of the historically devastating Hurricane Katrina, tied as the state’s most powerful storm ever with Laura from last year and the Last Island Hurricane of 1856.
Landfall is when the eye is halfway over the coast. Extreme winds and surge will accompany the 1 p.m. landfall over the next several hours.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Sunday he expects Ida to be “a big challenge for us”.
Edwards told CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union that his state “is as ready as we can be”, but he expects Ida to be “a very serious test of our levy systems, especially in our coastal Louisiana”.
The state invested significantly in shoring up the levy system after the catastrophic failure after Katrina. Edwards said Ida “will be the most severe test,” but he expects the levees to hold. “The next 24, 36 hours are just going to be very, very critical for us here in Louisiana.”
Ida became a Category 4 storm early Sunday morning, rapidly intensifying to sustained winds of 150 mph, according to the National Hurricane Centre.
The storm’s maximum sustained winds are down to 145 mph, according to the 3 p.m. NHC update. It’s located 25 miles southeast of Houma, Louisiana, moving northwest at 12 mph.
By Sunday afternoon, Hurricane Ida has left more than 285 000 customers without power in Louisiana, according to poweroutage.us. And Energy Louisiana said some of its customers could be without power for weeks.
Ida also caused more than 95% of the Gulf of Mexico’s oil production to shut down, regulators said Sunday, indicating the hurricane is having a significant impact on energy supply. (CNN)
