'Now is the time to run': powerful hurricane Ida is fast approaching the United States

Hurricane Ida is expected to rapidly escalate to Category 4 hurricane before making landfall in Louisiana on Sunday, Aug. 29. An evacuation has been announced in New Orleans and the surrounding coastal area. Writes about it CNN.

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Ida is now moving from Cuba to the Gulf of Mexico, where it is expected to intensify in the next 24 to 36 hours before landfall on the Louisiana coast on Sunday afternoon or evening. Recent satellite imagery has shown that the storm is becoming more organized.

New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell warned residents planning a voluntary evacuation and recommended leaving immediately.

“Time is not on our side. The hurricane is growing rapidly and intensifying, the mayor said. “If you are voluntarily evacuating, now is the time to flee—you need to do it immediately.”

Ida is expected to reach at least Category 4 before landfall, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Gale winds can reach New Orleans at approximately 08:00 on August 29, before the storm hits the coast in the afternoon or evening west of New Orleans, near Huma and Morgan City.

“Ida is expected to become an extremely dangerous, severe hurricane as it approaches the northern Gulf Coast,” National Hurricane Center forecasters said Saturday morning. As of the afternoon of August 28, Ida had reached category two with maximum sustained winds of 28 miles (100 km) per hour. And it moves at a speed of 160 miles (16 km) per hour.

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Officials across the state are asking people to evacuate, with some issuing binding orders to do so. Traffic from New Orleans has increased.

Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, urged people to stock up on enough food and water for at least three days — and be either on the road or home by midnight on Aug. 28.

“For the first 72 hours, you will be on your own,” Arnold explained. “It will be difficult to contact you in the first three days.”

New Orleans officials urged residents to "leave by Sunday morning if they can."

"If you remain, gather supplies, charge devices, lower refrigerator temperatures and secure outdoor items," the post said.

“Louisiana residents have until nightfall,” authorities warn. They predict that Ida will "deal a major blow throughout the state."

Cantrell issued a mandatory evacuation order for all urban areas outside the flood protection system and urged other residents to evacuate voluntarily or take shelter in place.

“The city can't issue a mandatory evacuation because we don't have time,” Cantrell said. “We don’t want people to be on the road and therefore in greater danger because of time constraints.”

According to NHC, a dangerous storm surge of 10 to 15 feet (3-4,5 m) is expected from Morgan City, Louisiana to the Mississippi estuary on Sunday, Aug. 29, when Ida comes ashore.

The storm surge, combined with winds of up to 150 miles (241 km) per hour, could render parts of southeastern Louisiana "uninhabitable for weeks or months," according to the latest statement from the National Weather Service.

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The statement warns of "structural damage to buildings" and winds that could trigger "massive blackouts". Flood rains can cause “numerous road and bridge closures, some of which will be weakened or eroded,” “some structures will become uninhabitable or be completely washed away by water.”

Rainfall can range from 8 to 16 inches (20-40 cm), with maximum rainfall reaching 20 inches (50 cm) in southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi before Monday, August 30, so significant flooding is possible. in the rivers.

The hurricane warning remains in effect from Intracostal City, Louisiana to the Pearl River estuary, including Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Morepas, and New Orleans.

In Louisiana, a hurricane warning is in effect from Cameron west of Intracoastal City and from the mouth of the Pearl River to the Mississippi-Alabama border.

“If you are going to evacuate, you know that this is a responsibility you take on. Do it as soon as possible,” Arnold advised. “You don’t want to be stuck on the road when the hurricane comes.”

If Ida comes ashore in Louisiana, it will be the fourth hurricane since last August and the third major hurricane in Louisiana in this period.

Sunday, August 29, which is the predicted landfall day, will be the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the most destructive hurricane in US history. More than 1800 people died in the Gulf of Mexico region directly or indirectly as a result of the storm and in the days that followed.

“August 29 is an important date in history here,” Collins noted. “A lot of people remember what happened 16 years ago.”

In Washington, an administration spokesman said US President Joe Biden was "regularly briefed on the trajectory of the storm." Biden spoke with the governors of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

Ida and COVID-19

Hospitals in New Orleans will not be evacuated — they will shelter in place, said Dr. Jennifer Avegno, the city's health department director.

The capacity of nearby hospitals in Texas and Florida is "extremely limited" as the number of COVID-19-related hospitalizations grows, she said. She added that city hospitals are familiar with plans for the storms.

“I would like to ask our residents: if you do not need to go to the hospital this weekend, unless you have a life-threatening situation, please do not go,” Avegno said. “Now is not the time to go to the hospital for routine things that can be put off until later.”

Meanwhile, Louisiana has no plans to separate vaccinated and unvaccinated people in emergency shelters, according to Mike Steele, spokesman for the state's Department of Homeland Security and Emergencies.

Steele noted that municipalities issue evacuation orders and these operations begin at the local level. He stressed that masks are essential in all state shelters along with social distancing.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has raised concerns about shelters as COVID-19 cases rise in the state.

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“The prospect of sheltering potentially thousands and thousands of people at the peak of the fourth wave is very, very daunting,” he said.

The Governor acknowledged the need to prepare for a potential hurricane amid recovery efforts following an intense 2020 hurricane season.

“We're not over it yet,” the governor said of Hurricanes Laura and Delta. “We still have businesses that are boarded up from the last hurricane.” The houses have not yet been renovated or occupied. Or if they are damaged to the point that they need to be torn down and removed, in many cases that hasn’t happened yet either.”

Ida went ashore twice in Cuba

Before entering the Gulf of Mexico, Ida hit Cuba twice as a Category 1 hurricane.

Ida, first formed as a tropical storm in the Caribbean on Thursday, August 26, hit the Cuban island of Juventud on Friday, August 27 afternoon, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

The second landfall occurred in western Cuba, about 20 miles (30 km) east of La Coloma, according to satellite imagery, radar data and NOAA Hurricane Hunter.

More than 4 inches (10 cm) of rain has been recorded in Pinar del Rio, according to the Cuban Meteorological Institute.

Some parts of western Cuba had sporadic rainfall events ranging from 5 to 15 inches (12,7 to 38 cm), according to hurricane center forecasters.

“This amount of rainfall could cause life-threatening flash floods and landslides,” the hurricane center said.

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