“This will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit Louisiana since at least 1850,” Governor John Bel Edwards warns the population as Category 4 Hurricane Ida approaches.
A warning that echoes that of meteorologists who have warned residents along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico to hurry preparations for the intensification of Hurricane Ida, which is expected to arrive on land in winds of up to 209 km. ‘Now. Ida will also be accompanied by a storm and floods.
Traffic on the coastal highways has been very intense, with thousands of Americans trying to shift from Ida’s probable trajectory which the National Hurricane Center says could become an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm. 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.
So 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 are 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.”
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