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Hurricane Ida barreling toward Louisiana as Category 4 storm
On the same date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana, Hurricane Ida is expected to make landfall and could reach Category 4 status on Sunday afternoon.
Local
NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Ida was crossing the Gulf of Mexico as a major hurricane early Sunday, on track for a potentially devastating landfall on the Louisiana coast while emergency officials in the region grappled with opening shelters for displaced evacuees despite the risks of spreading the coronavirus.
The National Hurricane Center predicted Ida could be an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane with 130 mph winds when it makes an expected afternoon landfall. The storm arrived on the exact date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier.
Ida was a Category 4 hurricane Sunday morning with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph. The storm was centered about 185 miles southeast of coastal Houma, Louisiana, and was traveling northwest at 15 mph.
The storm threatened a region already reeling from a resurgence of COVID-19 infections, thanks to low vaccination rates and the highly contagious delta variant.
New Orleans hospitals planned to ride out the storm with their beds nearly full, as similarly stressed hospitals elsewhere had little room for evacuated patients. And shelters for those fleeing their homes carried an added risk of becoming flashpoints for new infections.