Hurricane Ida touched down in Louisiana on Sunday afternoon, as the storm was elevated to Category 4 after being classified as Category 1 on Friday.
The “extremely dangerous” hurricanemade landfall at Port Fourchonjust before 1 p.m. local time with sustained winds as fast as 150 mph and a minimum central pressure of 930 mb, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Warnings are in effect for parts of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi, with the storm bringing damaging winds, torrential rain, and dangerous surges to many coastal areas. Tornado and flash flood warnings are also in effect, with New Orleansexpected to experience heavy rain and possible flash floods, according to CNN.
Steve Helber/AP/Shutterstock
“This is a life-threatening situation,” read a Sunday morningadvisoryfrom the NHC. “Persons located within these areas should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other dangerous conditions. Promptly follow evacuation and other instructions from local officials.”
For more on Hurricane Ida and other top stories, listen below toour daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.
After locals in affected areas were told to evacuate, New Orleans Director of Homeland Security Collin Arnold Amayor urged remaining residents to shelter in place. “There’s nobody coming right now,” Amayor said in apress conferenceon Sunday afternoon. “You need to stay inside.”
“Please do not try to access a health care or hospital facility right now,” added Jennifer Avegno, director of the New Orleans Health Department. “Our hospitals are hunkering down. They are caring for the patients who are within their walls. … We will be there for you when the storm passes.”
Hospitals in coastal Louisiana and Mississippiare bracing for the aftermathamid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, after Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi had toenlist help with hospital overflowfrom the federal government and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency this month. The state’s largest hospital, University of Mississippi Medical Center, was recently forced to set up a field hospital in their parking garage to manage the overflow.
RELATED VIDEO: Hurricane Laura Makes Landfall in U.S. as a Category 4 Storm
Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana noted that although he would usually consider evacuating hospitals during such a storm, the current circumstances made that an impractical move. “That isn’t possible. We don’t have any place to bring those patients. Not in state, not out of state,” Edwards said, according to16 WAPT News.
President Joe Bidendeclared a Pre-Disaster Emergencyfor Mississippi on Saturday, a day afterannouncing a declarationfor Louisiana, authorizing the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate disaster relief efforts in response to Hurricane Ida.
Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
Since Ida made landfall, more than 314,000 Louisiana householdshave lost power, with most of those affected being Entergy customers, the state’s largest electric utility company, according to poweroutage.us.
Entergy Mississippi President and CEO Haley Fisackerly advised customers in South Mississippi and the Jackson-metro to prepare for widespread outages as well.
Coming on the 16th anniversary ofHurricane Katrina, the Category 3 storm that claimed more than 1,800 lives and caused more than $100 billion in damages, Hurricane Ida marks two consecutive years of record-breaking hurricanes for Louisiana. Last year’s Hurricane Laura also made landfall with sustained winds of 150 mph,making it the strongest hurricanein terms of windspeed to hit Louisiana since 1856, according to NOLA.com.
source: people.com
