Powerful Hurricane Ida closing in on Louisiana landfall

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NEW ORLEANS – Hurricane Ida crossed the Gulf of Mexico connected way for a perchance devastating landfall connected the Louisiana seashore Sunday, portion exigency officials successful the portion grappled with opening shelters for displaced evacuees contempt the risks of spreading the coronavirus.

The National Hurricane Center predicted Ida could beryllium an highly unsafe Category 4 hurricane with 130 mph (209 kph) winds erstwhile it makes an expected day landfall. The tempest arrived connected the nonstop day Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier.

Ida was a Category 2 hurricane Saturday nighttime with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (168 kph). The tempest was centered astir 235 miles (375 kilometers) southeast of coastal Houma, Louisiana, and was traveling northwest astatine 16 mph (26 kph).

The tempest threatened a portion already reeling from a resurgence of COVID-19 infections, acknowledgment to debased vaccination rates and the highly contagious delta variant.

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.

Gov. John Bel Edwards vowed Saturday that Louisiana's “resilient and pugnacious people” would upwind the storm. He besides noted shelters would run with reduced capacities “to bespeak the realities of COVID.”

Edwards said Louisiana officials were already moving to find edifice rooms for galore 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.

“So, we cognize however to bash this,” Edwards said. “I anticipation and commune we don’t person to bash it anyplace adjacent that extent.”

In coastal Gulfport, Mississippi, a Red Cross structure posted signs displaying directions for evacuees on with warnings astir COVID-19. With skies inactive sunny, lone a fistful of radical had shown up Saturday evening.

Shelter manager Barbara Casterlin said workers were required to deterioration look masks. Evacuees were encouraged to bash the same. Anyone who refuses volition beryllium sent to an isolated area, she said, and truthful volition radical who are sick.

“We’re not checking vaccinations,” Casterlin said, “but we are doing somesthesia checks 2 oregon 3 times a day.”

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 demolished oceanfront homes successful Mississippi and caused levee breaches and catastrophic flooding successful New Orleans.

In Saucier, Mississippi, Alex and Angela Bennett spent Saturday day filling soil bags to spot astir their flood-prone home. Both survived Katrina, and didn't expect Ida to origin astir arsenic overmuch demolition wherever they live, based connected forecasts.

“Katrina was terrible. This ain’t gonna beryllium nothing,” Alex Bennett said. “I hatred it for Louisiana, but I’m blessed for us.”

Long lines formed astatine state pumps Saturday arsenic radical rushed to escape. Trucks pulling saltwater sportfishing boats and campers streamed distant from the seashore connected Interstate 65 successful Alabama, portion postulation jams clogged Interstate 10 heading retired of New Orleans.

Ida intensified truthful swiftly that New Orleans officials said determination was 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.

Officials besides stressed that the levee and drainage systems protecting the metropolis had been overmuch improved since Katrina. But they cautioned flooding was inactive imaginable with up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rainfall forecast successful immoderate areas.

Edwards said 5,000 National Guard troops were being staged successful 14 Louisiana parishes for hunt and rescue efforts. And 10,000 linemen were connected standby to respond to electrical outages.

Ida posed a menace acold beyond New Orleans. A hurricane informing was issued for astir 200 miles (320 kilometers) of Louisiana’s coastline, from Intracoastal City southbound of Lafayette to the Mississippi authorities line. A tropical tempest informing was extended to the Alabama-Florida line.

Meteorologist Jeff Masters, who flew hurricane missions for the authorities and founded Weather Underground, said Ida is forecast to determination done “the conscionable implicit worst spot for a hurricane.”

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.

A U.S. Energy Department representation of lipid and state infrastructure shows scores of low-lying sites successful the storm’s projected way that are listed arsenic perchance susceptible to flooding.

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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; and Michael Biesecker successful Washington.

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