Hurricane Ida blasts ashore in Louisiana with major force

By KEVIN MCGILL and JAY REEVES

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Ida blasted ashore on the Louisiana seashore connected Sunday, with the oculus of 1 of the astir almighty storms ever to deed the U.S. arriving adjacent the obstruction land of Grand Isle.

The almighty Category 4 tempest made landfall connected the aforesaid day Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier, astir 40 miles (64 kilometers) westbound of wherever Category 3 Katrina archetypal struck land.

Arriving with a barometric unit of 930 millibars, Ida preliminarily goes down arsenic tied for the 5th strongest hurricane to marque landfall successful the United States based connected upwind speed. Based connected cardinal unit it is tied for 9th strongest U.S. landfall.

Ida rapidly intensified overnight arsenic it moved done immoderate of the warmest water h2o successful the satellite successful the bluish Gulf of Mexico, its apical winds grew by 45 mph (72 kph) to 150 mph (230 kph) successful 5 hours.

Hurricane unit winds started to onslaught Grand Isle connected Sunday morning. Before powerfulness was mislaid connected the Louisiana obstruction island, a beachfront web camera showed the water steadily rising arsenic increasing waves churned and thenar trees whipped. More than 100,000 customers had mislaid powerfulness successful Louisiana by noon and were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.US, which tracks outages nationwide.

Wind tore astatine awnings and h2o began spilling retired of Lake Ponchartrain successful New Orleans. Officials determination said Ida’s swift intensification from a fewer thunderstorms to monolithic hurricane implicit 3 days near nary clip to signifier a mandatory evacuation of its 390,000 residents.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell urged residents to permission voluntarily. Those who stayed were warned to hole for agelong powerfulness outages amid sweltering heat.

Nick Mosca was walking his dog, similar astir of those who were retired Sunday morning.

“I’d similar to beryllium amended prepared. There’s a fewer things I’m reasoning we could person done. But this tempest came beauteous quick, truthful you lone person the clip you have,” Mosca said.

Cars were parked connected the median Sunday successful New Orleans, which is simply a fewer feet higher and tin support against imaginable flooding. Most businesses were closed, but Breads connected Oak, located 3 blocks from the Mississippi River levee, was unfastened and offering two-for-one deals to get arsenic overmuch of their baked goods sold arsenic possible.

“Everybody’s like, ‘Oooh, we request our hurricane pastries,’” co-owner Chamain O’Mahony said. “So everyone’s coming retired for hurricane nutrient — biscuits and a batch of cinnamon rolls and brioche. You privation treats. And you privation bread.”

Once conditions got excessively unsmooth oregon the inventory ran out, O’Mahony and her hubby planned to thrust retired the tempest successful an flat they usually rent attached to the bakery.

In Port Fourchon, boats and helicopters gathered to instrumentality workers and supplies to lipid platforms successful the water and the lipid extracted starts it travel toward refineries. The larboard handles astir a 5th of the nation’s home lipid and gas, officials said.

Along with the lipid industry, Ida threatened a portion already reeling from a resurgence of COVID-19 infections, owed to debased vaccination rates and the highly contagious delta variant. More than 2 cardinal radical unrecorded astir New Orleans, Baton Rouge and the wetlands to the south.

New Orleans hospitals planned to thrust retired the tempest with their beds astir full, arsenic likewise stressed hospitals elsewhere had small country for evacuated patients. And shelters for those fleeing their homes carried an added hazard of becoming flashpoints for caller infections.

Forecasters warned winds stronger than 115 mph (185 kph) were expected soon successful Houma, a metropolis of 33,000 that supports lipid platforms successful the Gulf and Gulfport, Mississippi, to the eastbound of New Orleans was seeing the water emergence and dense rains bands.

Gov. John Bel Edwards vowed Louisiana’s “resilient and pugnacious people” would upwind the storm.

Edwards said Louisiana officials were moving to find edifice rooms for evacuees truthful that less had to enactment successful wide shelters. He noted that during past year’s hurricane season, Louisiana recovered rooms for 20,000 people.

President Joe Biden approved exigency declarations for Louisiana and Mississippi up of Ida’s arrival.

Comparisons to the Aug. 29, 2005, landfall of Katrina weighed heavy connected residents bracing for Ida. A Category 3 storm, Katrina was blamed for 1,800 deaths arsenic it caused levee breaches and catastrophic flooding successful New Orleans and demolished oceanfront homes successful Mississippi. Ida’s hurricane unit winds stretched little than 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the storm’s eye, oregon little than fractional the size of Katrina.

Officials stressed that the levee and drainage systems protecting New Orleans had been overmuch improved since Katrina. But they cautioned flooding was inactive possible, with up to 24 inches (61 centimeters) of rainfall forecast successful immoderate areas.

“Ida volition astir decidedly beryllium stronger than Katrina, and by a beauteous large margin,’ said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. “And, the worst of the tempest volition walk implicit New Orleans and Baton Rouge, which got the weaker broadside of Katrina.”

Hurricane Ida astir doubled successful strength, going from an 85 mph tempest to a 150 mph tempest successful conscionable 24 hours, which meteorologists called “explosive intensification.”

“Yikes! Ida leaves maine stunned,” said Jeff Masters, a erstwhile National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane huntsman meteorologist and laminitis of Weather Underground.

He warned the portion could look devastation to its infrastructure, which includes petrochemical sites and large ports. The state’s 17 lipid refineries relationship for astir one-fifth of the U.S. refining capableness and its 2 liquefied earthy state export terminals vessel astir 55% of the nation’s full exports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Louisiana is besides location to 2 atomic powerfulness plants, 1 adjacent New Orleans and different astir 27 miles (about 43 kilometers) northwest of Baton Rouge.

The Interstate 10 corridor betwixt New Orleans and Baton Rouge is simply a captious hub of the nation’s petrochemical industry, lined with lipid refineries, earthy state terminals and chemic manufacturing plants. Entergy, Louisiana’s large energy provider, operates 2 atomic powerfulness plants on the Mississippi River.

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Reeves reported from Gulfport, Mississippi. Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana, Stacey Plaisance and Janet McConnaughey successful New Orleans; Emily Wagster Pettus successful Jackson, Mississippi; Jeff Martin successful Marietta, Georgia; Seth Borenstein successful Kensington, Maryland; Frank Bajak successful Boston; Michael Biesecker successful Washington; Pamela Sampson successful Atlanta; and Jeffrey Collins successful Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.