Despite the risk of spreading the coronavirus, emergency officials in the area are still working to open shelters for displaced and evacuees.
The system is expected to make landfall on Sunday afternoon (Monday, Australian Eastern Standard Time), the exact date of Hurricane Katrina that destroyed Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years ago.
The storm was about 100 kilometers south of the mouth of the Mississippi River and 13 kilometers southeast of Grand Island, Louisiana. It travels northwest at a speed of 24 kilometers per hour.
Due to low vaccination rates and highly contagious delta variants, this storm threatens an area that has already experienced a comeback from COVID-19 infection.
The New Orleans hospital plans to survive the crisis with almost full beds, because other hospitals that are also under pressure have little space to accommodate evacuated patients.
Refuges fleeing their homes are more likely to become flashpoints for new infections.
Louisiana Governor John Bell Edwards vowed on Saturday that “the tough and strong people of Louisiana” will tide over the storm.
He also pointed out that the operational capacity of the shelter will be reduced to “reflect the reality of COVID.”
Edwards said that Louisiana officials have been working hard to find hotel rooms for many evacuees in order to reduce the number of people who need to stay in collective shelters.
He pointed out that during last year’s hurricane season, Louisiana had found rooms for 20,000 people.
“So, we know what to do,” he said.
“I hope and pray that we don’t have to do this anywhere close to that.”
In the coastal area of Gulfport, Mississippi, Red Cross shelters posted signs indicating the direction of evacuees and warnings about COVID-19. When the sky was still clear, only a few people showed up on Saturday night.
The director of the shelter, Barbara Casterlin (Barbara Casterlin) said workers must wear masks. Encourage evacuees to do the same. She said that anyone who refuses will be sent to the quarantine area, and so will the patients.
“We don’t check vaccines, but we perform temperature checks two to three times a day,” Castellin said.
US President Joe Biden approved the emergency declarations of Louisiana and Mississippi before Ida arrived.
Compared with August 29, 2005, the landfall of Hurricane Katrina severely affected the residents who were preparing to welcome Ida.
As a Category 3 storm, Hurricane Katrina destroyed seaside houses in Mississippi and caused dikes to rupture and catastrophic flooding in New Orleans, killing 1,800 people.
In Southhill, Mississippi, Alex and Angela Bennett filled sandbags around their flood-prone home Saturday afternoon.
They all survived Hurricane Katrina. Judging from the predictions, they did not expect that Ada would cause the same level of damage where they lived.
“Hurricane Katrina is terrible,” Alex Bennett said. “That’s nothing.”
“I hate Louisiana, but I am happy for us.”
On Saturday, people lined up in front of the gas station, and people fled. Trucks dragging saltwater fishing boats and campers swarmed along Interstate 65 in Alabama, and traffic jams blocked Interstate 10 from New Orleans.
Ada congealed so fast that New Orleans officials said there was no time to organize the forced evacuation of its 390,000 residents.
Mayor Latoya Cantrell (Latoya Cantrell) urged residents to leave voluntarily. Those who stayed were warned to prepare for a long power outage in the sweltering heat.
Officials also emphasized that since Hurricane Katrina, the dikes and drainage systems that protect the city have been greatly improved. But they warned that flooding is still possible, and rainfall in some areas is expected to reach 50 cm.
Edwards said that 5,000 National Guard soldiers were organized into 14 parishes in Louisiana for search and rescue operations. 10,000 transport workers are on standby to deal with power outages.
Ada poses a threat far away from New Orleans. From the inland city south of Lafayette to the Mississippi state line, a hurricane warning was issued approximately 320 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana. The tropical storm warning has been extended to Alabama and Florida.
Meteorologist Jeff Masters said that Ada is expected to travel through the “worst place in hurricane history.” He was responsible for the government’s hurricane attacks and founded Weather Underground.
The Interstate 10 Corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is an important hub for the country’s petrochemical industry, along with oil refineries, natural gas plants, and chemical manufacturing plants.
Entergy, a major power supplier in Louisiana, operates two nuclear power plants along the Mississippi River.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s oil and gas infrastructure map shows that dozens of locations below the expected path of the storm are listed as vulnerable to flooding.