Aug 29, 2021: As Hurricane Ida made landfall off the coast of Louisiana, residents faced a potentially devastating and historic event, on the 16th anniversary of Katrina, a brutal hurricane that swept over the U.S. Gulf Coast killing 1800 people.

National Weather Service officials announced Saturday night that hurricane Ida is strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico and is poised to become a Category 3 hurricane overnight, with 130 miles and a possible Category 4 hurricane on Sunday afternoon with deadly winds of 210 km/h and rain.

State officials have warned that hurricane Ida is likely to become one of the worst hurricanes in Louisiana’s history, an area known for severe weather events.

According to the governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, “This will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in Louisiana since at least the 1850s, we can also tell you that your time window is closing fast.”

As the hurricane Ida approaches, tens of thousands of coastal residents in southeastern Louisiana have been ordered to evacuate. In New Orleans, the city placed those living outside the levee Protection System under mandatory evacuation and urged everyone else to leave voluntarily.

There was a grid lock on the main highway leaving the city and wide queues at Louis Armstrong International Airport, as officials announced the cancellation of all flights on Sunday.

It was 29 August 2005 when New Orleans and other communities in the region were decimated by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent government failures in response. Hundreds of thousands of homes were lost after the city’s levee system failed, leading to catastrophic flooding. The city took years to recover.

In downtown New Orleans the streets were quiet on Saturday evening as the city braced for hurricane Ida with its tropical storm force winds to arrive from Sunday morning. In the city’s historic French Quarter, businesses were boarded up and on Bourbon St, usually the centre of nightlife in the city on weekends, bars were deserted.

The Louisiana national guard has stationed 5,000 troops around the state in preparation for search and rescue missions. As officials warned of widespread power outages, 10,000 linesmen were on standby to respond.

Hurricane Ida’s precise landfall location remains unclear, with hurricane warnings in effect from Intracoastal City in south Louisiana to New Orleans. Storm surge warnings extend into coastal Mississippi and Alabama.

Hurricane Ida’s track shifted slightly to the east throughout Saturday, increasing the danger in New Orleans, where the National Weather Service projected wind of 110mph and up to 510mm of rain, leading to fears of major flash flooding in the city.

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