A lethal hurricane has hit Louisiana. Exactly 16 years after the devastating hurricane “Katrina”, the New Orleans region is facing another catastrophe.
New Orleans – Dangerous, catastrophic, a storm and floods of historic proportions: With these warnings, those responsible appealed urgently to residents of the US Gulf Coast to get to safety in good time.
Hurricane “Ida” hit the coast in the state of Louisiana on Sunday noon (local time) as an “extremely dangerous” cyclone, as the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. The state and the city of New Orleans would have to reckon with heavy rain, a “life-threatening storm surge”, catastrophic gusts of wind and long-lasting power outages.
The center of the storm hit the coast with a force of four out of five from the Gulf of Mexico, southwest of the city of New Orleans near Port Fourchon, the NHC said. The cyclone brought wind speeds of around 240 kilometers per hour when it reached the coast, said the NHC.
Just over an hour after the hurricane hit land, the operations center in the city of New Orleans reported “widespread power outages”. The interactive map from the local energy supplier Entergy showed around 170,000 households without electricity. According to the Poweroutage.us website, around 233,000 customers across the state were without power. In New Orleans, the emergency services stopped working for the time being because of the dangerous winds.
Photos and videos from local media had already shown the first floods and violent gusts of wind on Sunday morning after the first foothills of the storm had arrived. The NHC measured a water level two meters higher in a coastal wetland south of New Orleans. At the city’s airport there are gusts of wind at a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour.
Governor John Bel Edwards activated the National Guard with around 5000 soldiers for the hurricane. The civil protection agency flew aid and supplies into the region, the coast guard stationed numerous helicopters and boats for the upcoming rescue operation. All flights to New Orleans were canceled on Sunday. Because of thousands of residents fleeing the coastal areas, the highways into the interior and neighboring states have been completely overcrowded since Saturday. Edwards warned that “Ida” would be one of the strongest storms since 1850 when it hits Louisiana.
“Ida” struck Louisiana 16 years to the day after the arrival of the devastating hurricane “Katrina”. “Katrina” had caused catastrophic damage and floods in and around New Orleans. Around 1,800 people were killed at that time. Since then, however, billions have been invested in flood protection in the region. As a result, New Orleans is now better protected from flooding, but according to the latest forecasts, the city must also expect extremely destructive gusts of wind.
The forecasted strong winds, the massive rainfall and the storm surge in Louisiana are all considered in themselves “life threatening,” said the NHC director Ken Graham on Sunday the TV broadcaster CNN. A look at the radar images of the storm shows how “catastrophic it will be,” said Graham. “It will be a life-threatening situation,” he warned. Graham appealed to everyone in the region to get to safety.
US President Joe Biden was briefed by the civil protection agency Fema about the storm. Fema has already brought 500 emergency services as well as 1.6 million liters of drinking water, a million meals and generators to the region, said the White House.
“Hurricane Ida poses a direct threat to the people of New Orleans,” warned Mayor LaToya Cantrell in advance. Because of the rapidly approaching storm, there was no more time to order a compulsory evacuation of the entire city. She therefore only ordered the evacuation of particularly endangered areas that lie outside the dams. New Orleans is almost entirely surrounded by water – Lake Pontchartrain to the north, Lake Borgne to the east, and the wetlands along the Mississippi Estuary to the south.
According to the governor, “Ida” will be the toughest test to date for flood protection in New Orleans. Since “Katrina” there have been massive investments in flood protection, Edwards told CNN. He was more worried about the areas southwest of the city, which did not have such well-developed flood protection.
On parts of the Louisiana coast, southwest of New Orleans, where the storm hit land, a “life-threatening” storm surge of almost five meters was to be expected, the NHC warned. At Lake Borgne, almost four meters can be expected, at Lake Pontchartrain a good two meters. Flood and tornado warnings were also issued in parts of the neighboring states to the east of Mississippi and Alabama because of the hurricane.
Governor Edwards said coastal hospitals could not be evacuated despite the hurricane because there were too many corona patients. Currently, 2,450 patients are being treated for Covid-19 in the state with 4.6 million inhabitants, he said. There is no longer any capacity in Louisiana and the neighboring states to accept additional patients. For the facilities, despite generators, long power outages as a result of the hurricane are a great danger. The state has mobilized around 10,000 workers to quickly restore the power supply, Edwards said. Louisiana and the neighboring states are in the midst of a dramatic corona wave.
“Ida” is scheduled to move northeast to Mississippi and Tennessee on Monday. The cyclone hit western Cuba as a level one hurricane on Friday. According to reports from the state media, “Ida” caused power outages and damage there. dpa
