AFP UK

“Life-threatening” Hurricane Ida battered the southern US state of Louisiana and plunged New Orleans into darkness Sunday, 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

Ida slammed into the Louisiana coast as a Category 4 storm and was downgraded to a Category 3 by evening — the same strength Katrina was when it came ashore in 2005.

As of 9:00 pm, Ida was packing maximum sustained winds of 110 miles (175 kilometers) per hour, and the powerful storm knocked out power for all of New Orleans.

“@EntergyNOLA has confirmed that New Orleans has no power,” tweeted NOLA Ready, the city’s emergency preparedness program, referring to the area’s electricity provider.

“The only power in the city is coming from generators.”

Ahead of Ida’s arrival, showers and strong wind swept New Orleans’ deserted streets throughout the morning, buffeting boarded-up windows at businesses and homes surrounded by sandbags. 

Ida was 40 miles per hour slower than when it made landfall at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, approximately 100 miles south of New Orleans, but the National Hurricane Center said it remained a dangerous Category 3 storm.

The NHC also warned that the storm surge would create a “life-threatening situation” and urged residents in affected areas to “take all necessary actions to protect life and property.”

President Joe Biden had also described Ida as “a life-threatening storm” that “continues to rage and ravage everything it comes in contact with.”

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said Ida could be the most powerful storm to hit the state since 1850.

“There is no doubt that the coming days and weeks are going to be extremely difficult,” he said at a briefing Sunday, adding that some people might have to shelter in place for up to 72 hours.

“Find the safest place in your house and stay there until the storm passes,” he tweeted earlier.

Storm surges flooded the town of Grand Isle, on a barrier island south of New Orleans, and low-lying highways in the area were covered in water.

– ‘Not sure if I’m prepared’ –

Most residents had heeded warnings of catastrophic damage and authorities’ instructions to flee.

Roads leading out of New Orleans had bumper-to-bumper traffic in the days preceding Ida’s arrival.

In one neighborhood in eastern New Orleans, a few residents were completing preparations just hours before landfall.

“I’m not sure if I’m prepared,” said Charles Fields, who was bringing his garden furniture indoors, “but we just have to ride it.”

“We’ll see how it holds up,” added the 60-year-old, who in 2005 saw Hurricane Katrina flood his house with 11 feet (3.3 meters) of water.

In St. Bernard Parish, a large ferry boat broke free of its moorings and was being blown up the Mississippi River, according to local TV channel WWL, which posted a video of the boat.

– ‘Very serious test’ –

Governor Edwards warned on Sunday that Ida would be “a very serious test for our levee systems,” an extensive network of pumps, gates and earthen and concrete berms that was expanded after Katrina.

He told CNN that hundreds of thousands of residents were believed to have evacuated.

The storm “presents some very challenging difficulties for us, with the hospitals being so full of Covid patients,” he said.

With a low rate of vaccination, Louisiana is among the states hit hardest by the pandemic, severely stressing hospitals.

Hospitalizations, at 2,700 on Saturday, are near their pandemic high. 

The memory of Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005, is still fresh in Louisiana, where it caused some 1,800 deaths and billions of dollars in damage.

“It’s very painful to think about another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida making landfall on that anniversary,” Edwards had previously said.

Rainfall of 10 to 18 inches (25 to 46 centimeters) is expected in parts of southern Louisiana through Monday, with up to 24 inches in some areas.

The storm is expected to continue weakening as it moves over land, with a predicted track taking it north over the central United States before veering eastward, reaching the mid-Atlantic region by Wednesday.

– Ida and the coronavirus –

The White House said Sunday that federal agencies had deployed more than 2,000 emergency workers to the region — including 13 urban search-and-rescue teams — along with food and water supplies and electric generators. 

Local authorities, the Red Cross and other organizations have prepared dozens of shelters with room for at least 16,000 people, the White House added. 

Plans to cope with the hurricane — and set up shelters — have been complicated by Covid-19. 

Biden on Saturday urged anyone in community shelters to wear masks and maintain distance. 

Scientists have warned of a rise in cyclone activity as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities.

Syria’s longest river used to flow by his olive grove, but today Khaled al-Khamees says it has receded into the distance, parching his trees and leaving his family with hardly a drop to drink.

“It’s as if we were in the desert,” said the 50-year-old farmer, standing on what last year was the Euphrates riverbed.

“We’re thinking of leaving because there’s no water left to drink or irrigate the trees.”

Aid groups and engineers are warning of a looming humanitarian disaster in northeast Syria, where waning river flow is compounding woes after a decade of war.

They say plummeting water levels at hydroelectric dams since January are threatening water and power cutoffs for up to five million Syrians, in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis.

As drought grips the Mediterranean region, many in the Kurdish-held area are accusing neighbour and archfoe Turkey of weaponising water by tightening the tap upstream, though a Turkish source denied this.

Outside the village of Rumayleh where Khamees lives, black irrigation hoses lay in dusty coils after the river receded so far it became too expensive to operate the water pumps.

Instead, much closer to the water’s edge, Khamees and neighbours were busy planting corn and beans in soil just last year submerged under the current.

The father of 12 said he had not seen the river so far away from the village in decades.

“The women have to walk seven kilometres (four miles) just to get a bucket of water for their children to drink,” he said.

– ‘Alarming’ –

Reputed to have once flown through the biblical Garden of Eden, the Euphrates runs for almost 2,800 kilometres (1,700 miles) across Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

In times of rain, it gushes into northern Syria through the Turkish border, and flows diagonally across the war-torn country towards Iraq.

Along its way, it irrigates swathes of land in Syria’s breadbasket, and runs through three hydroelectric dams that provide power and drinking water to millions.

But over the past eight months the river has contracted to a sliver, sucking precious water out of reservoirs and increasing the risk of dam turbines grinding to a halt.

At the Tishrin Dam, the first into which the river falls inside Syria, director Hammoud al-Hadiyyeen described an “alarming” drop in water levels not seen since the dam’s completion in 1999.

“It’s a humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.

Since January, the water level has plummeted by five metres, and now hovers just dozens of centimetres above “dead level” when turbines are supposed to completely stop producing electricity.

Across northeast Syria, already power generation has fallen by 70 percent since last year, the head of the energy authority Welat Darwish says. 

Two out of three of all potable water stations along the river are pumping less water or have stopped working, humanitarian groups say.

– ‘Water weapon’? –

Almost 90 percent of the Euphrates flow comes from Turkey, the United Nations says.

To ensure Syria’s fair share, Turkey in 1987 agreed to allow an annual average of 500 cubic metres per second of water across its border.

But that has dropped to as low as 200 in recent months, engineers claim.

Inside Syria, the Euphrates flows mostly along territory controlled by semi-autonomous Kurdish authorities, whose US-backed fighters have over the years wrested its dams and towns from the Islamic State group.

Turkey however regards those Kurdish fighters as linked to its outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and has grabbed land from them during Syria’s war.

Syria’s Kurds have accused Ankara of holding back more water than necessary in its dams, and Damascus in June urged Turkey to increase the flow immediately.

But a Turkish diplomatic source told AFP Turkey had “never reduced the amount of water it releases from its trans-boundary rivers for political or other purposes”.

“Our region is facing one of the worst drought periods due to climate change,” and rainfall in southern Turkey was “the lowest in the last 30 years”, this source said.

Analyst Nicholas Heras said Turkey did hold leverage over Syria and Iraq with the huge Ataturk Dam just 80 kilometres from the Syrian border, but it was debatable whether Ankara wanted to use it.

That would mean “international complications for Ankara, both with the United States and Russia”, a key Damascus ally across the table in Syria peace talks.

“The easier, and more frequently utilised, water weapon that Ankara uses is the Alouk plant” that it seized from the Kurds in 2019, Heras said.

Fresh water supply from the station on another river has been disrupted at least 24 times since 2019, affecting 460,000 people, the United Nations says.

– ‘Drought is coming’ –

But Syria analyst Fabrice Balanche said the drought did serve Ankara’s long-term goal of “asphyxiating northeast Syria economically”.

“In periods of drought, Turkey helps itself and leaves the rest for the Kurds, in defiance and in full knowledge of the consequences,” he said.

Wim Zwijnenburg, of the PAX peace organisation, said Turkey was struggling to provide enough water for “megalomanic” agricultural projects set up in the 1990s, a challenge now complicated by climate change.

“The big picture is drought is coming,” he said. 

“We already see a rapid decline in healthy vegetation growth on satellite analysis” in both Syria and Turkey.

A UN climate change report this month found human influence had almost definitely increased the frequency of simultaneous heatwaves and droughts worldwide.

These dry spells are to become longer and more severe around the Mediterranean, the United Nations has warned, with Syria most at risk, according to the 2019 Global Crisis Risk Index.

Downstream from the Tishrin Dam, the Euphrates pools in the depths of Lake Assad.

But today Syria’s largest fresh water reservoir too has withdrawn inwards.

On its banks, men with tar-stained hands worked to repair generators exhausted from pumping water across much further distances than in previous years.

Agricultural worker Hussein Saleh, 56, was desperate.

“We can no longer afford the hoses or the generators,” said the father of 12.

“The olive trees are thirsty and the animals are hungry.” 

At home, in the village of Twihiniyyeh, power cuts had increased from nine to 19 hours a day, he said.

At the country’s largest dam of Tabqa to the south, veteran engineer Khaled Shaheen was worried.

“We’re trying to diminish how much water we send through,” he said.

But “if it continues like this, we could stop electricity production for all except… bakeries, flour mills and hospitals.”

– ‘Short on food’ –

Meanwhile, among five million people depending on the Euphrates for drinking water, more and more families are ingesting liquid that is unsafe.

Those cut off from the network instead pay for deliveries from private water trucks.

But these tankers most often draw water directly from the river — where wastewater concentration is high due to low flow — and these supplies are not filtered. 

Waterborne disease outbreaks are on the rise, and contaminated ice has caused diarrhoea in displacement camps, according to the NES Forum, an NGO coordination body for the region.

Marwa Daoudy, a Syrian scholar of environmental security, said the decreasing flow of the Euphrates was “very alarming”.

“These levels threaten whole rural communities in the Euphrates Basin whose livelihood depends on agriculture and irrigation,” she said.

Aid groups say drought conditions have already destroyed large swathes of rain-fed crops in Syria, a country where 60 percent of people already struggle to put food on the table.

In some communities, animals have started to die, the NES Forum has said.

The United Nations says barley production could drop by 1.2 million tonnes this year, making animal feed more scarce.

Balanche said Syria was likely facing a years-long drought not seen since one from 2005 to 2010, before the civil war.

“The northeast, but also all of Syria, will be short on food, and will need to import massive quantities of cereals.”

Downstream in Iraq, seven million more people risked losing access to water from the river, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Karl Schembri said.

“Climate doesn’t look at borders,” he said.

Hurricane Ida battered southern Louisiana Sunday, 16 years to the day after deadly Hurricane Katrina devastated the southern US city of New Orleans.

Ida slammed into the Louisiana coast as a Category 4 storm, and was downgraded to a Category 3 by evening — the same strength Katrina was when it came ashore in 2005.

“Ida is a dangerous category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Rapid weakening is expected during the next day or so, however, Ida is forecast to remain a hurricane through late tonight,” the National Hurricane Center wrote in an advisory.

The NHC also warned that the storm surge would create a “life-threatening situation” and urged residents in affected areas to “take all necessary actions to protect life and property.”

As of 7:00 pm, Ida was packing maximum sustained winds of 120 miles (195 kilometers) per hour, slightly slower than when it made landfall at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, approximately 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of New Orleans.

President Joe Biden called Ida “a life-threatening storm” that “continues to rage and ravage everything it comes in contact with.” Speaking after a briefing with federal emergency managers, he urged anyone on the storm’s path to hunker down immediately and heed official warnings. 

Ahead of Ida’s arrival, showers and strong wind swept New Orleans’ deserted streets throughout the morning, buffeting boarded-up windows at businesses and homes surrounded by sandbags. 

State Governor John Bel Edwards said Ida could be the most powerful storm to hit the state since 1850.

“There is no doubt that the coming days and weeks are going to be extremely difficult,” he said at a briefing Sunday, adding that some people might have to shelter in place for up to 72 hours.

“Find the safest place in your house and stay there until the storm passes,” he wrote earlier on Twitter.

Storm surges flooded the town of Grand Isle, on a barrier island south of New Orleans, and low-lying highways in the area were covered in water.

Extensive and long-lasting power outages are expected, with more than 700,000 homes without electricity by evening, according to the website poweroutage.us.

Amid urgent warnings of catastrophic damage, most residents had heeded authorities’ instructions to flee. Scores of people packed bumper-to-bumper roads leading out of New Orleans in the days preceding Ida’s arrival.

In one neighborhood in eastern New Orleans, a few residents were still completing last-minute preparations just hours before landfall.

“I’m not sure if I’m prepared,” said Charles Fields, who was still bringing his garden furniture indoors, “but we just have to ride it.”

The 60-year-old, who in 2005 saw Hurricane Katrina flood his house with 11 feet (3.3 meters) of water, added that “we’ll see how it holds up.”

In St. Bernard Parish, a large ferry boat broke free of its moorings and was being blown up the Mississippi River, according to local TV channel WWL, which posted video of the boat.

– ‘Very serious test’ –

Governor Edwards warned on Sunday that Ida would be “a very serious test for our levee systems,” an extensive network of pumps, gates and earthen and concrete berms that was expanded after Katrina.

He told CNN that hundreds of thousands of residents were believed to have evacuated.

The storm “presents some very challenging difficulties for us, with the hospitals being so full of Covid patients,” he said.

The Southern state, with a low rate of vaccinations, has been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, severely stressing hospitals. Hospitalizations, at 2,700 on Saturday, are near their pandemic high. 

The memory of Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005, is still fresh in Louisiana, where it caused some 1,800 deaths and billions of dollars in damage.

“It’s very painful to think about another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida making landfall on that anniversary,” Edwards had previously said.

Rainfall of 10 to 18 inches (25 to 46 centimeters) is expected in parts of southern Louisiana through Monday, with up to 24 inches in some areas.

The storm is expected to continue weakening as it moves over land, with a predicted track taking it north over the central US before veering eastward, reaching the mid-Atlantic region by Wednesday.

– Ida and the coronavirus –

The White House said Sunday that federal agencies had deployed more than 2,000 emergency workers to the region — including 13 urban search-and-rescue teams — along with food and water supplies and electric generators. 

Local authorities, the Red Cross and other organizations have prepared dozens of shelters with room for at least 16,000 people, the White House added. 

Plans to cope with the hurricane — and plans for the shelters — have been complicated by Covid-19. 

Biden on Saturday urged anyone in community shelters to wear masks and maintain distance. 

Scientists have warned of a rise in cyclone activity as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities.

Chester Lastie clearly recalls Hurricane Katrina, which devastated his neighborhood in eastern New Orleans, 16 years ago to the day. The memories are made all the more vivid by the gusts of wind from Hurricane Ida currently battering his white house.

“We were sitting in the yard about 11:00 when the levees broke” on August 29, 2005, he tells AFP. He quickly jumped in his truck and headed for the Claiborne Avenue Bridge, high up, where he watched the elements unleash themselves on the Lower Ninth Ward, a working-class neighborhood with a mostly Black population.

He and a friend later went out in a boat. “We saw a lot of people stuck in houses, on the roof, stuck in trees. We saved them,” he continues. 

Most of the drowning deaths in Louisiana due to Katrina took place in neighborhoods in the east of New Orleans, including the Lower Ninth Ward, according to a report by authorities released three years after the disaster.

Images of roads and houses flooded with brown water from the Mississippi River, which borders the area, were seen around the world, turning the Lower Ninth Ward into one of the main symbols of Katrina’s destruction.

Lastie hopes that the damage won’t be as bad with Ida. “I don’t think the Lord would do that twice,” says the 56-year-old, who took more than a year to completely rebuild his house and his other properties after the 2005 hurricane.

His wife Patricia Walker, 53, sporting sparkly sandals and a mouth full of gold teeth, is also a Katrina survivor.

“I went to my attic and waited for the sunlight, and then people rescued me,” she recalls. 

The chef waited two years before returning to the Lower Ninth Ward, where she grew up.

But many never came back at all, as shown by the multiple plots of weedy, overgrown grass lining the neighborhood’s main street, giving it a desolate air.

Before Katrina, “this neighborhood was full of kids in the streets,” says Lastie despairingly. “There is nothing anymore, only empty lots.”

He points out the places where his neighbors’ large, two-story houses used to stand, destroyed by the hurricane classified as a Category 3 out of 5.

– New levees –

Not everyone left. Peter Torregiano lives with his wife and three children in a brand new, pale blue house, construction for which was finished in February.

“I think they weren’t prepared during Katrina, but we got the new levee system,” he says, as he stands in the rain, prepping the generator he will use if the power goes out.

His house is elevated to prevent flooding, and he proudly shows off the sides of his house, designed to withstand gusts of wind.

Shane Boyington, walking his Labrador retriever George through the rain and wind, shares the same confidence in the new levee system built after Katrina, which cost more than $14 billion. 

He also believes in his home’s ability to withstand the onslaught of the Category 4 storm Ida.

“It’s raised and it has storm windows,” he explains, adding that the house was built by the nonprofit Make It Right, founded in 2007 to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward.

“I’m just praying to God that the levees hold,” says Carroll Barriere. 

The 47-year-old, who owns a garage and a lot in the neighborhood, hopes that some essential institutions will finally return to this part of the city once Ida passes.

“I plan on building once they get a police station here,” he says, getting into his pickup truck as he prepares to ride out the hurricane.

Hurricane Ida slammed into the coast of Louisiana Sunday as a powerful Category 4 storm, 16 years to the day after deadly Hurricane Katrina devastated the southern US city of New Orleans.

“Extremely dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Ida makes landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana,” the National Hurricane Center wrote in an advisory.

Ida struck the port, approximately 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of New Orleans, at 1655 GMT, packing maximum sustained winds estimated at 150 miles per hour.

President Joe Biden called Ida “a life-threatening storm” that “continues to rage and ravage everything it comes in contact with.” Speaking after a briefing with federal emergency managers, he urged anyone on the storm’s path to hunker down immediately and heed official warnings. 

Ahead of Ida’s arrival, showers and strong wind swept New Orleans’ deserted streets throughout the morning, buffeting boarded-up windows at businesses and homes surrounded by sandbags. 

The National Hurricane Center warned of catastrophic wind damage and life-threatening storm surges through the region.

State Governor John Bel Edwards said Ida could be the most powerful storm to hit the state since 1850.

“There is no doubt that the coming days and weeks are going to be extremely difficult,” he said at a briefing Sunday, adding that some people might have to shelter in place for up to 72 hours.

“Find the safest place in your house and stay there until the storm passes,” he wrote earlier on Twitter.

Storm surges flooded the town of Grand Isle, on a barrier island south of New Orleans, and low-lying highways in the area were covered in water.

Extensive and long-lasting power outages are expected, with 365,000 homes already without electricity by late afternoon, according to the website poweroutage.us.

Amid urgent warnings of catastrophic damage, most residents had heeded authorities’ instructions to flee. Scores of people packed bumper-to-bumper roads leading out of New Orleans in the days preceding Ida’s arrival.

In one neighborhood in eastern New Orleans, a few residents were still completing last-minute preparations just hours before landfall.

“I’m not sure if I’m prepared,” said Charles Fields, who was still bringing his garden furniture indoors, “but we just have to ride it.”

The 60-year-old, who in 2005 saw Hurricane Katrina flood his house with 11 feet (3.3 meters) of water, added that “we’ll see how it holds up.”

In St. Bernard Parish, a large ferry boat broke free of its moorings and was being blown up the Mississippi River, according to local TV channel WWL, which posted video of the boat.

– ‘Very serious test’ –

Governor  Edwards warned on Sunday that Ida would be “a very serious test for our levee systems,” an extensive network of pumps, gates and earthen and concrete berms that was expanded after Katrina.

He told CNN that hundreds of thousands of residents were believed to have evacuated.

The storm “presents some very challenging difficulties for us, with the hospitals being so full of Covid patients,” he said.

The Southern state, with a low rate of vaccinations, has been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, severely stressing hospitals. Hospitalizations, at 2,700 on Saturday, are near their pandemic high. 

The memory of Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005, is still fresh in Louisiana, where it caused some 1,800 deaths and billions of dollars in damage.

“It’s very painful to think about another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida making landfall on that anniversary,” Edwards had previously said.

Rainfall of 10 to 18 inches (25 to 46 centimeters) is expected in parts of southern Louisiana through Monday, with up to 24 inches in some areas.

The storm is expected to begin weakening as it moves over land, with a predicted track taking it north over the central US before veering eastward, reaching the mid-Atlantic region by Wednesday.

– Ida and the coronavirus –

The White House said Sunday that federal agencies had deployed more than 2,000 emergency workers to the region — including 13 urban search-and-rescue teams — along with food and water supplies and electric generators. 

Local authorities, the Red Cross and other organizations have prepared dozens of shelters with room for at least 16,000 people, the White House added. 

Plans to cope with the hurricane — and plans for the shelters — have been complicated by Covid-19. 

Biden on Saturday urged anyone in community shelters to wear masks and maintain distance. 

Scientists have warned of a rise in cyclone activity as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities.

Hurricane Ida struck the coast of Louisiana Sunday as a powerful Category 4 storm, 16 years to the day after deadly Hurricane Katrina devastated the southern US city of New Orleans.

“Extremely dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Ida makes landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana,” the National Hurricane Center wrote in an advisory.

Ida struck the port, located approximately 100 miles (160 kilometers) directly south of New Orleans, at 1655 GMT, packing maximum sustained winds estimated at 150 miles per hour.

Ahead of Ida’s arrival, showers and strong wind swept New Orleans’ deserted streets throughout the morning, buffeting boarded-up windows at businesses and homes surrounded by sandbags. 

State Governor John Bel Edwards said Ida, which had gathered force on its approach through the warm waters of the Gulf, could be the most powerful storm to hit the state since 1850.

“Hurricane #Ida has made landfall in Louisiana. Find the safest place in your house and stay there until the storm passes,” he wrote on Twitter.

Storm surges had earlier flooded the town of Grand Isle, on a barrier island south of New Orleans, CNN reported. 

The National Hurricane Center also reported high water levels and flooding affecting the communities of Shell Beach, Louisiana and Yach Club, Mississippi.

Extensive and long-lasting power outages are expected, with more than 150,000 homes already without electricity by midday, according to the website poweroutage.us.

Amid urgent warnings of catastrophic damage, most residents had heeded authorities’ instructions to flee. Scores of people packed bumper-to-bumper roads leading out of New Orleans in the days preceding Ida’s arrival.

In one neighborhood in eastern New Orleans, a few residents were still completing last-minute preparations just hours before landfall.

“I’m not sure if I’m prepared,” said Charles Fields, who was still bringing his garden furniture indoors, “but we just have to ride it.”

The 60-year-old, who in 2005 saw Hurricane Katrina flood his house with 11 feet (3.3 meters) of water, added that “we’ll see how it holds up.”

– ‘Very serious test’ –

Governor  Edwards warned on Sunday that Ida would be “a very serious test for our levee systems,” an extensive network of pumps, gates and earthen and concrete berms that was expanded after Katrina.

He told CNN that hundreds of thousands of residents were believed to have evacuated.

The storm “presents some very challenging difficulties for us, with the hospitals being so full of Covid patients,” he said.

The Southern state, with a low rate of vaccinations, has been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, severely stressing hospitals. Hospitalizations, at 2,700 on Saturday, are near their pandemic high. 

The memory of Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005, is still fresh in Louisiana, where it caused some 1,800 deaths and billions of dollars in damage.

“It’s very painful to think about another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida making landfall on that anniversary,” Edwards had previously said.

Rainfall of 10 to 18 inches (25 to 46 centimeters) is expected in parts of southern Louisiana through Monday, with up to 24 inches in some areas.

– Ida and the coronavirus –

The White House said Sunday that federal agencies had deployed more than 2,000 emergency workers to the region — including 13 urban search-and-rescue teams — along with food and water supplies and electric generators. 

Local authorities, the Red Cross and other organizations have prepared dozens of shelters with room for at least 16,000 people, the White House added. 

Plans to cope with the hurricane — and plans for the shelters — have been complicated by Covid-19. 

US President Joe Biden, who has declared a state of emergency for Louisiana, on Saturday urged anyone in community shelters to wear masks and maintain distance. 

Scientists have warned of a rise in cyclone activity as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities.

Louisiana braced Sunday for Hurricane Ida, a powerful Category 4 storm on course to slam into New Orleans 16 years to the day after deadly Hurricane Katrina devastated the southern US city.

Showers and strong wind swept New Orleans’ deserted streets Sunday morning, buffeting boarded-up windows at businesses and homes surrounded by sandbags. 

State Governor John Bel Edwards said Ida, which has gathered force on its approach through the warm waters of the Gulf, could be the most powerful storm to hit the state since 1850.

By midday Sunday, storm surges were already flooding the town of Grand Isle, on a barrier island south of New Orleans, CNN reported.

Amid urgent warnings of catastrophic damage, most residents have heeded authorities’ instructions to flee. Scores of people packed bumper-to-bumper roads leading out of New Orleans in the days preceding Ida’s arrival.

The hurricane, packing maximum sustained winds of 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour was expected to make landfall along the southeastern Louisiana coast “within the next few hours,” the National Hurricane Center reported in its 1500 GMT advisory.

In one neighborhood in eastern New Orleans, a few residents were still completing last-minute preparations.

“I’m not sure if I’m prepared,” said Charles Fields, who was still bringing his garden furniture indoors, “but we just have to ride it.”

The 60-year-old, who in 2005 saw Hurricane Katrina flood his house with 11 feet (3.3 meters) of water, added that “we’ll see how it holds up.”

– ‘Very serious test’ –

Governor  Edwards warned on Sunday that Ida would be “a very serious test for our levee systems.”

He told CNN that hundreds of thousands of residents were believed to have evacuated.

The storm “presents some very challenging difficulties for us, with the hospitals being so full of Covid patients,” he said.

The Southern state, with a low rate of vaccinations, has been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, severely stressing hospitals. Hospitalizations, at 2,700 on Saturday, are near their pandemic high. 

The memory of Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005, has not begun to fade in Louisiana, where it caused some 1,800 deaths and billions of dollars in damage.

“It’s very painful to think about another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida making landfall on that anniversary,” Edwards had previously said.

Rainfall of 10 to 18 inches (25 to 46 centimeters) is expected in parts of southern Louisiana through Monday, with up to 24 inches in some areas.

– Ida and the Delta variant –

The White House said Sunday that federal agencies had deployed more than 2,000 emergency workers to the region — including 13 urban search-and-rescue teams — along with food and water supplies and electric generators. 

Extensive and long-lasting power outages are expected.

Local authorities, the Red Cross and other organizations have prepared dozens of shelters with room for at least 16,000 people, the White House added. 

Plans to cope with the hurricane — and plans for the shelters — have been complicated by Covid-19. 

US President Joe Biden, who has declared a state of emergency for Louisiana, on Saturday urged anyone in community shelters to wear masks and maintain distance. 

Scientists have warned of a rise in cyclone activity as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities.

Hurricane Ida was upgraded to a Category 4 storm as it stayed on course to hit New Orleans with maximum sustained winds reaching 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour, the US National Hurricane Center said Sunday.

Ida was due to make landfall on Sunday, 16 years to the day Hurricane Katrina devastated the southern US city, flooding 80 percent of New Orleans, and leaving behind 1,800 casualties and billions of dollars in damage.

“Dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Ida strengthens some more,” the NHC said in its latest advisory.

“Life-threatening storm surge, potentially catastrophic wind damage, and flooding rainfall will impact portions of the northern Gulf Coast beginning later this morning.”

Shops were boarded up and evacuations were underway Saturday in New Orleans, with officials warning residents to leave immediately or hunker down to ride out the storm.

Images on social media and US news channels showed scores of people gathered at the airport waiting to board flights and cars driving bumper-to-bumper on clogged roads leading out of the city.

“Everybody is scared because it’s the anniversary of Katrina and people didn’t take it seriously at the time,” said Austin Suriano, who was helping board up the windows of his father’s watch repair shop.

Category 4 is the second-highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of up to 156 miles per hour.

President Joe Biden warned Saturday that “Ida is turning into a very, very dangerous storm” when it had strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane.

– ‘Time is not on our side’ –

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said Ida would be one of the most powerful storms to hit the state since the 1850s.

In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell warned residents to take Ida with utmost seriousness.

“Time is not on our side,” she said. “It’s rapidly growing, it’s intensifying.”

Southern Louisiana was bracing for massive damage and flooding as the fast-intensifying storm roared northward after pummeling western Cuba.

“Extended power loss is almost certain,” New Orleans homeland security director Collin Arnold told reporters Saturday. “I’m imploring you to take this storm seriously.”

Biden said hundreds of emergency personnel had been sent to the region, along with food, water and electric generators. 

Shelters were being prepared around the region but Louisiana is one of the states hit hardest by Covid-19, and the president urged anyone heading to such facilities to wear a mask and take precautions.

The National Weather Service forecast a “life-threatening storm surge” — as high as 12 feet near New Orleans and 16 feet around the mouth of the Mississippi River — when the hurricane makes landfall.

It warned of “catastrophic wind damage” and said Ida could spawn tornadoes.

Louisiana has declared a state of emergency in preparation for the storm. The declaration, approved by Biden, will expedite federal storm assistance to the southern state.

The hurricane made landfall late Friday in western Cuba as a Category 1 storm, packing winds near 80 miles per hour but causing mostly minor damage.

Scientists have warned of a rise in cyclone activity as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities.

– ‘Very painful’ –

The dire warnings about Ida inevitably sparked memories of Katrina, Governor Edwards said in a briefing.

“It’s very painful to think about another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida, making landfall on that anniversary,” he said.

One big difference, he said, was the huge investment since then in an extensive storm protection system of levees, gates and pumps.

Still, Eric Suriano from the watch repair shop said he remembers Katrina vividly: “It was the nightmare of my life.”

Meanwhile, a Category 1 hurricane named Nora made landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast, the NHC said.

Nora’s center “remains near the coast of Mexico after making landfall in the northwest Jalisco” province, it added.

Last week, a rare tropical storm struck the US northeastern seaboard, knocking out power, uprooting trees and bringing record rainfall.

Hurricane Ida was upgraded to a Category Four storm, the US National Hurricane Center said Sunday, staying on course to hit New Orleans with sustained winds of 130 miles per hour (209 kilometers per hour).

Sunday, when Ida is due to make landfall, marks 16 years since Katrina, the devastating hurricane that flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, left 1,800 people dead, and caused billions of dollars in damage.

“Major Hurricane Ida continues to strengthen… Now a dangerous category 4 hurricane,” the NHC said on its website. 

“Ida is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane when it makes landfall along the Louisiana coast this afternoon,” the center earlier said in its latest advisory when Ida was raised to Category Three. 

Shops were boarded up and evacuations were underway Saturday in the southern US city, with officials warning residents to leave immediately or hunker down to ride out the storm. 

“Everybody is scared because it’s the anniversary of Katrina and people didn’t take it seriously at the time,” said Austin Suriano, who was helping board up the windows of his father’s watch repair shop.

Category Four is the second highest on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, with winds rising up to 140 miles per hour.

President Joe Biden warned Saturday that “Ida is turning into a very, very dangerous storm” when it had built to a Category 2 hurricane.

Earlier in the day, people evacuating from New Orleans and other cities clogged roads heading north as officials warned locals to leave immediately or hunker down.

All Sunday flights were canceled at New Orleans airport.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said Ida would be one of the most powerful storms to hit the state since the 1850s.

In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell warned residents to take Ida with utmost seriousness.

“Time is not on our side,” she told a briefing. “It’s rapidly growing, it’s intensifying.”

Southern Louisiana was bracing for massive damage and flooding as the fast-intensifying storm roared northward after pummeling western Cuba.

“Extended power loss is almost certain,” New Orleans homeland security director Collin Arnold told reporters Saturday. “I’m imploring you to take this storm seriously.”

Biden said hundreds of emergency personnel had been sent to the region, along with food, water and electric generators. 

Shelters were being prepared around the region, but Louisiana has been one of the hardest-hit states by the Covid-19 pandemic, and Biden urged anyone heading to a shelter to wear a mask and take precautions.

The National Weather Service is forecasting a “life-threatening storm surge” — as high as 11 feet near New Orleans and 15 feet around the mouth of the Mississippi River — when the hurricane makes landfall.

It warned of “catastrophic wind damage” and said Ida could spawn tornadoes.

Louisiana has declared a state of emergency in preparation for the storm.

The emergency declaration, approved by Biden, will expedite federal storm assistance to the southern state.

The hurricane made landfall late Friday in western Cuba as a Category One storm, packing winds near 80 miles per hour but causing mostly minor damage. 

– ‘Very painful’ –

The dire warnings about Ida inevitably sparked memories of Katrina, Governor Edwards said in a briefing.

“It’s very painful to think about another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida, making landfall on that anniversary,” he said.

One big difference, he said, was the huge investment since then in an extensive storm protection system of levees, gates and pumps.

Still, Eric Suriano, the watchmaker, remembers Katrina vividly: “It was the nightmare of my life.”

Meantime, a Category One hurricane named Nora made landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Nora’s center “remains near the coast of Mexico after making landfall in the northwest Jalisco” province, the center said.

Last week, a rare tropical storm struck the US northeastern seaboard, knocking out power, uprooting trees and bringing record rainfall. 

Scientists have warned of a rise in cyclone activity as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities.

Owners were boarding up their shops and evacuations were underway Saturday as Hurricane Ida was on a path to hit New Orleans 16 years to the day the southern US city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

A handful of people were still on New Orleans streets, but many businesses had closed up ahead of what the National Weather Service called an “an extremely dangerous major hurricane.”

“Everybody is scared because it’s the anniversary of Katrina and people didn’t take it seriously at the time,” said Austin Suriano, who was helping board up the windows of his father’s watch repair shop.

Sunday, when Ida is due to make landfall, marks 16 years since Katrina, the devastating hurricane that flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, left 1,800 people dead and caused billions of dollars in damage.

President Joe Biden warned Saturday that “Ida is turning into a very, very dangerous storm” as it built to a Category 2 hurricane, packing 100 mile (160 kilometer) per hour sustained winds and heavy rain.

Earlier in the day, people evacuating from New Orleans and other cities clogged roads heading north as officials warned locals to leave immediately or hunker down to ride out the storm.

All Sunday flights were cancelled at New Orleans airport.

Tropical storm-force winds are expected to hit the area late Saturday, while Ida was forecast to slam into the coast as a powerful Category Four hurricane — with winds up to 140 miles per hour — Sunday afternoon or evening.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said Ida would be one of the most powerful storms to hit the state since the 1850s.

In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell warned residents to take Ida with utmost seriousness.

“Time is not on our side,” she told a briefing. “It’s rapidly growing, it’s intensifying.”

Southern Louisiana was bracing for massive damage and flooding as the fast-intensifying storm roared northward after pummeling western Cuba.

“Extended power loss is almost certain,” New Orleans homeland security director Collin Arnold told reporters Saturday. “I’m imploring you to take this storm seriously.”

Biden said hundreds of emergency personnel had been sent to the region, along with food, water and electric generators. 

Shelters were being prepared around the region, but Louisiana has been one of the hardest-hit states by the Covid-19 pandemic, and Biden urged anyone heading to a shelter to wear a mask and take precautions.

The National Weather Service is forecasting a “life-threatening storm surge” — as high as 11 feet near New Orleans and 15 feet around the mouth of the Mississippi River — when the hurricane makes landfall.

It warned of “catastrophic wind damage” and said Ida could spawn tornadoes.

Category Four is the second-highest on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, with a minimum wind strength of 130 miles per hour. 

Louisiana has declared a state of emergency in preparation for the storm.

The emergency declaration, approved by Biden, will expedite federal storm assistance to the southern state.

The hurricane made landfall late Friday in western Cuba as a Category 1 storm, packing winds near 80 miles per hour but causing mostly minor damage. 

– ‘Be ready for whatever comes’ –

The dire warnings about Ida inevitably sparked memories of Katrina, Governor Edwards said in a briefing.

“It’s very painful to think about another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida, making landfall on that anniversary,” he said.

One big difference, he said, was the huge investment since then in an extensive storm protection system of levees, gates and pumps.

Still, Eric Suriano, the watchmaker, remembers Katrina vividly: “”It was the nightmare of my life.”

Meantime, a Category One hurricane named Nora made landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast, according to the National Hurricane center.

Nora’s center “remains near the coast of Mexico after making landfall in the northwest Jalisco” province, the center said.

Last week, a rare tropical storm struck the US northeastern seaboard, knocking out power, uprooting trees and bringing record rainfall. 

Scientists have warned of a rise in cyclone activity as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities.