Traffic has clogged some roads out of Louisiana as residents flee
BATON ROUGE (Louisiana, US), Aug 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Tens of thousands of people are fleeing for safety from the US state of Louisiana as Hurricane Ida closes in.
Ida is expected on make landfall on the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday evening, bringing 140mph (220km/h) winds and a “life-threatening” storm surge.
Forecasters say it could be even stronger than Hurricane Katrina that devastated much of New Orleans in 2005.
Traffic jams clogged some motorways out of Louisiana as residents in many areas were ordered to evacuate.
Governor John Bel Edwards warned the storm could be one of the biggest to hit the state in 150 years.
The governor of neighbouring Mississippi has declared a state of emergency.
President Joe Biden said Ida was “turning into a very, very dangerous storm” and the federal government was ready to provide help.
The hurricane is intensifying over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, boosting it from a category-2 to an extremely dangerous category-4 storm.
Tropical force winds are expected to sweep across southern Louisiana from 08:00 local time (13:00 GMT).
Coincidentally, Sunday marks the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans after making landfall as a category 3. Katrina flooded 80% of the city and killed more than 1,800 people.
More than 80 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico have been evacuated and half the region’s oil and gas output has been suspended.
Ida earlier battered part of Cuba, bringing down trees and tearing off roofs, while Jamaica suffered heavy rains. No one was reported killed.
Experts say that if storm surges hit at a time that coincides with high tides, sea water could flood over the New Orleans levee system and into the city. — NNN-AGENCIES
