Hurricane Ida, which travels to the coasts of Louisiana in the southern United States, has strengthened and has been upgraded to category 3, with winds reaching 185 kilometers per hour. This was reported by the National Center for Hurricanes (NHC). “Rapid strengthening is expected to continue in the next 12 hours and will be an extremely dangerous hurricane when it lands on the Louisiana coast this afternoon,” said the National Hurricane Center. Ida is expected to hit the Louisiana coast as a Category 4 hurricane.
“This will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit Louisiana since at least 1850,” Governor John Bel Edwards said, warning people as the hurricane approaches. Meteorologists expect Ida to arrive south of New Orleans around noon local time, 7pm in Italy.
New Orleans International Airport has canceled all scheduled departing and arriving flights for today. Traffic on the coastal highways has been very intense, with thousands of Americans trying to get out of Ida’s likely trajectory. Trucks pulling fishing boats and RVs pulled off the coast of Interstate 65 in southern Alabama. Traffic jams have clogged Interstate 10 in the direction of New Orleans.
Ida is about to hit Louisiana 16 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts. Classified as a Category 3 storm, Katrina resulted in 1,800 deaths and caused levee rupture and catastrophic flooding in New Orleans that took years to recover.
“We’re not the same state we were in 16 years ago,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards assured Saturday, pointing to a federal levee system that has seen major improvements since Katrina engulfed New Orleans in 2005. “This system will be tested, ”Edwards said. “The people of Louisiana will be tested. But we are resilient and tough people. And we will make it ».