Hurricane Ida hits Gulf Coast

Hurricane Ida hits Gulf Coast

Hurricane Ida plowed into Louisiana from the Gulf of Mexico as a fierce Category 4 storm on Sunday, leaving 1 million Louisiana homes and businesses without electricity and one fatality reported so far.

Ida lashed the coast with 150 mile-per-hour winds, torrential downpours and pounding surf that submerged much of the shoreline under several feet of water, with flash flooding reported by the National Hurricane Center across southeastern Louisiana.

As the storm pushed inland past New Orleans over the next 10 hours, its maximum sustained winds diminished to 105 mph, ranking it as a Category 1 hurricane. It eventually weakened to a tropical storm.

Rainfall, 24-hour total as of 6 am ET Monday, Aug. 30

Ark.

Ala.

Miss.

La.

Mobile

Baton Rouge

New Orleans

GULF OF

MEXICO

Inches of rainfall

1

2

3

4

6

8

10

12

16

Ark.

Ga.

Ala.

Miss.

La.

Mobile

Baton Rouge

New Orleans

GULF OF

MEXICO

Inches of rainfall

1

2

3

4

6

8

10

12

16

Ark.

Ga.

Ala.

Miss.

La.

Mobile

Baton Rouge

Fla.

New Orleans

GULF OF

MEXICO

Inches of rainfall

1

2

3

4

6

8

10

12

16

Storm surge

Ark.

Ala.

Miss.

La.

Mobile

Baton Rouge

New Orleans

GULF OF

MEXICO

Maximum height

1

2

3

4

5

6 ft.

Ark.

Ga.

Ala.

Miss.

La.

Mobile

Baton Rouge

New Orleans

GULF OF

MEXICO

Maximum height

1

2

3

4

5

6 ft.

Ark.

Ga.

Ala.

Miss.

La.

Mobile

Baton Rouge

Fla.

New Orleans

GULF OF

MEXICO

Maximum height

1

2

3

4

5

6 ft.

“We’re hearing about widespread structural damage,” said Deanne Criswell, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator, in an interview with CNN. “I don’t think there could have been a worse path for this storm. It’s going to have some significant impacts.”

Highway 51 is flooded after Hurricane Ida struck LaPlace, Louisiana, U.S., August 30, 2021. Mickey Welsh/Montgomery Advertiser/USA TODAY Network via REUTERS

Power was knocked out Sunday night to the entire New Orleans metropolitan area following the failure of all eight transmission lines that deliver electricity to the city, the utility company Entergy Louisiana reported.

One transmission tower collapsed into the Mississippi River, the Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Department said.

More than 1 million homes and businesses in Louisiana and some 120,000 in Mississippi were without electricity early on Monday, according to the tracking site PowerOutage.US.

Power outages in Hurricane Ida’s path

Updated

Pct. customers with power outages

0

100%

Source: PowerOutage.us

A loss of generator power at the Thibodaux Regional Health System hospital in Lafourche Parish, southwest of New Orleans, forced medical workers to manually assist respirator patients with breathing while they were moved to another floor, the state Health Department confirmed to Reuters.

Officials estimate it will take six weeks to restore power to the affected parishes, Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Director Joe Valiente said in an interview with NPR.

Members of a rescue team help evacuate people after Hurricane Ida made landfall in Laplace, Louisiana, U.S. August 30, 2021. REUTERS/Marco Bello

The storm arrived 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina, one of the most catastrophic and deadly U.S. storms on record, struck the Gulf Coast, and about a year after the last Category 4 hurricane, Laura, battered Louisiana.

Ida was the first major hurricane to strike the United States this year. Just three days after emerging as a tropical storm in the Caribbean Sea, it had intensified into a Category 4 hurricane.

Hurricane Ida’s explosive growth

Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall as Category 4 or stronger since 1980

Katrina left some 80% of New Orleans flooded, inundating historically Black neighborhoods and causing more than $100 billion in damage. More than 1,800 people died.

Following the storm in 2005, a $14.5 billion system of gates, floodwalls and levees stretching hundreds of miles were built around New Orleans and completed in 2018. So far, officials said the 350-mile (560-km) defensive ring is said to be performing as designed, even as they cautioned it was too early to declare all was clear.

“The levee system and the flood system today is much, much better and much, much stronger than it was in Katrina,” said Kelli Chandler, regional director of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority, which operates the system. “We don’t anticipate a breach.”

Towns outside of leveed areas like LaPlace, Jean Lafitte, and Lafitte sustained some of the worst flooding damage

A transmission tower collapsed into the Mississippi River, leading to widespread power outages across the city

Leveed

areas

Lake Pontchartrain

LaPlace

NEW ORLEANS

Jean Lafitte

Thiboudaux

Lafitte

Houma

Galliano

Grand Isle

10mi

Regions in the direct path of Ida, like Houma, Galliano, and Grand Isle sustained severe damage despite being in leveed areas, due to dangerously strong winds and storm surges.

Towns outside of leveed areas

like LaPlace, Jean Lafitte, and

Lafitte sustained some of the

worst flooding damage

Leveed

areas

Lake Pontchartrain

LaPlace

Lake

Borgne

NEW ORLEANS

A transmission tower collapsed into the Mississippi River, leading to widespread power outages across the city

Jean Lafitte

Lafitte

In Alliance, levees failed overnight, causing severe flooding

Alliance

Houma

Galliano

Regions in the direct path of Ida, like Houma, Galliano, and Grand Isle, sustained severe damage despite being in leveed areas, due to dangerously strong winds and storm surges.

Grand Isle

10mi

Towns outside of leveed areas

like LaPlace, Jean Lafitte, and

Lafitte sustained some of the

worst flooding damage

Leveed

areas

Lake Pontchartrain

LaPlace

Lake

Borgne

NEW ORLEANS

A transmission tower collapsed into the Mississippi River, leading to widespread power outages across the city

Jean Lafitte

In Alliance, levees failed overnight, causing severe flooding

Lafitte

Alliance

Houma

Galliano

Regions in the direct path of Ida, like Houma, Galliano, and Grand Isle, sustained severe damage despite being in leveed areas, due to dangerously strong winds and storm surges

Grand Isle

10mi

Towns outside of leveed areas

like LaPlace, Jean Lafitte, and

Lafitte sustained some of the

worst flooding damage

Leveed

areas

A transmission tower collapsed into the Mississippi River, leading to widespread power outages across the city

Lake Pontchartrain

LaPlace

Lake

Borgne

NEW ORLEANS

Thiboudaux

Jean Lafitte

Lafitte

Alliance

In Alliance, levees failed overnight, causing severe flooding

Regions in the direct path of Ida, like Houma, Galliano, and Grand Isle, sustained severe damage despite being in leveed areas, due to dangerously strong winds and storm surges

Houma

Galliano

Grand Isle

10mi

Leveed

areas

Covington

A transmission tower collapsed into the Mississippi River, leading to widespread power outages across the city

Towns outside of leveed areas

like LaPlace, Jean Lafitte, and

Lafitte sustained some of the

worst flooding damage

Lake Pontchartrain

LaPlace

Lake

Borgne

NEW ORLEANS

Thiboudaux

Jean Lafitte

Lafitte

Alliance

In Alliance, levees failed overnight, causing severe flooding

Regions in the direct path of Ida, like Houma, Galliano, and Grand Isle, sustained severe damage despite being in leveed areas, due to dangerously strong winds and storm surges

Houma

Galliano

Grand Isle

10mi

In 2019, the Army Corps warned of the need to reinforce the earthen levees, which have been losing height due to settling in the soft soils of the region. Rising sea levels, which highlight the effects of climate change, add to the challenge.

The storm’s approach forced the suspension of emergency medical services in New Orleans and across a state already reeling from a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections that has strained Louisiana’s healthcare system.

For an estimated 2,450 COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide, many in intensive care units, evacuation was not an option.

Nearly all offshore Gulf oil production was also suspended in advance of the storm, and major ports along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts were closed to shipping.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said nearly 300 offshore oil and gas platforms were evacuated, cutting Gulf-based petroleum and natural gas production by 96% and 94%, respectively.

Production losses will increase retail gasoline prices by 5 to 15 cents a gallon, tracking firm GasBuddy said. The extent of increases will depend on how quickly electric power can be restored and when a major fuel pipeline can resume operations, said petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan.

President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in the state on Sunday, ordering federal assistance to bolster recovery efforts in more than two dozen storm-stricken parishes.

“Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster,” the White House said.

Theophilus Charles, 70, sits inside his house which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ida in Houma, Louisiana, U.S., August 30, 2021. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
Sources

Satellite loop from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Historical hurricane data from the National Hurricane Center; Power outage data from PowerOutage.us; Levee data from US Army Corps of Engineers

Graphics by

Chris Canipe, Jon McClure, Minami Funakoshi, Travis Hartman, Caitlin Gilbert and Ally J. Levine

Edited by

Cynthia Osterman