Hurricane Ida hits Louisiana, governor says levees will hold

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NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana on Sunday as a particularly harmful Class 4 storm, forcing those that didn’t flee to brace themselves for the hardest take a look at but of the billions of {dollars} spent on levee upgrades following Hurricane Katrina 16 years in the past.

Ida got here ashore close to Port Fourchon, Louisiana, at 11:55 a.m. CDT (16:55 GMT), the Nationwide Hurricane Heart (NHC) mentioned. Hurricane-strength winds prolonged 50 miles (80 km) out from Ida’s eye, forcing New Orleans to droop emergency medical companies because the storm crawled northwest at 13 miles per hour (21 km per hour).

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A whole lot of miles of recent levees have been constructed round New Orleans after the devastation of Katrina, which made landfall 16 years in the past to the day, inundating traditionally Black neighborhoods and killing greater than 1,800 individuals.

“This is without doubt one of the strongest storms to make landfall right here in fashionable occasions,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards mentioned at a information briefing.

The state “has by no means been extra ready,” he mentioned, predicting that no levees within the Hurricane & Storm Injury Threat Discount System defending the higher New Orleans space could be overtopped.

“Will it’s examined? Sure. However it was constructed for this second,” he mentioned. Edwards mentioned some levees within the state’s southeast not constructed by the federal authorities have been predicted to overtop.

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Greater than 300,000 Louisiana properties and companies had already misplaced electrical energy, principally within the state’s southeast, in accordance with the monitoring website PowerOutage.

“As quickly the storm passes, we’re going to place the nation’s full would possibly behind the rescue and restoration,” President Joe Biden mentioned after a briefing on the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Administration Company in Washington.

Simply three days after rising as a tropical storm within the Caribbean Sea, Ida had swelled right into a Class 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale with prime sustained winds of 150 miles per hour (240 km per hour), the NHC mentioned.

Palm timber trembled as rain blasted in sideways by means of New Orleans on Sunday, the place retired 68-year-old Robert Ruffin had evacuated together with his household to a downtown resort from their dwelling within the metropolis’s east.

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“I believed it was safer,” he mentioned. “It’s double hassle this time due to COVID.”

Hours later, howling winds sucked out home windows on the resort’s third flooring, and blue curtains have been seen fluttering outdoors.

Within the capital of Baton Rouge, Marvin Broome mentioned he had no alternative however to remain dwelling as a result of his spouse is the mayor, Sharon Weston Broome. The 73-year-old English instructor mentioned in a cellphone interview he was stashing household valuables and essential papers in a protected a part of their dwelling whereas Mayor Broome handled the town of 224,000.

Predicted storm surges have been already occurring, exceeding 6 toes (1.83 m) in some components of the coast. Elements of Freeway 90 that runs alongside the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast had grow to be a uneven river, in accordance with movies posted on social media.

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The NHC additionally warned of probably catastrophic wind injury and as much as two toes (61 cm) of rainfall in some areas.

Residents who haven’t any inside rooms of their dwelling have been instructed to maneuver to a closet or lavatory for defense, with the governor warning it may take 72 hours for emergency responders to reach. Some parishes imposed curfews starting Sunday night, forbidding individuals from going outdoors.

“We’re as ready as we may be, however we’re frightened about these levees,” mentioned Kirk Lepine, president of Plaquemines Parish on the state’s Gulf Coast.

Plaquemines, one of the crucial susceptible parishes, is dwelling to 23,000 individuals alongside the Mississippi delta. Lepine feared water topping levees alongside Freeway 23.

“That’s our one highway out and in,” he mentioned.

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‘EVERYONE WHO CARES ABOUT NEW ORLEANS IS WORRIED’

Officers had ordered widespread evacuations of low-lying and coastal areas, jamming highways and main some gasoline stations to run dry as residents and vacationers fled, though Edwards mentioned it was inconceivable to evacuate sufferers from hospitals.

Louisiana hospitals have been treating some 2,450 COVID-19 sufferers after a surge in infections, Edwards mentioned, with many in a number of the state’s parishes already nearing capability.

“Everybody who cares about New Orleans is frightened,” mentioned Andy Horowitz, a historical past professor who wrote “Katrina: A Historical past, 1915-2015.” Horowitz fled to Alabama together with his household from their dwelling close to New Orleans’ French Quarter.

Some $14 billion was spent strengthening levees after Katrina, however which will nonetheless be inadequate within the face of local weather change, he mentioned. Local weather change has led to extra intense and wetter hurricanes within the area.

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Biden earlier mentioned 500 federal emergency response staff have been in Texas and Louisiana to answer the storm.

Port Fourchon is dwelling to the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the nation’s largest privately owned crude oil terminal.

The Bureau of Security and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) mentioned 288 oil and fuel platforms and 11 rigs within the U.S. Gulf have been evacuated, whereas the quantity of suspended oil manufacturing there rose to 96%. Nearly 94% of Gulf of Mexico pure fuel manufacturing was additionally out.

Phillips 66 shut its Alliance plant on the coast in Belle Chasse, whereas Exxon Mobil Corp lower manufacturing at its Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery on Saturday.

(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in New Orleans, Jessica Resnick-Ault and Jonathan Allen in New York, Erwin Seba in Houston, Wealthy McKay in Atlanta, Linda So and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington, Liz Hampton in Denver, and Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Writing by Jessica Resnick-Ault and Jonathan Allen; Modifying by Caroline Stauffer, Leslie Adler, Frances Kerry and Invoice Berkrot)