Hurricane Ida Has Made Landfall In Louisiana As A Category 4 Storm

Updated August 29, 2021 at 2:21 PM ET

Hurricane Ida, a storm with catastrophic potential and of life-threatening proportions, has reached the Louisiana coast. The National Hurricane Center said Ida made landfall at 11:55 a.m. CT as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 mph, according to a tweet from the center.

The National Hurricane Center said Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, La., roughly 100 miles from New Orleans.

The storm's approach has had the Crescent City bracing for danger. At a briefing just before Ida made landfall, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell urged residents and visitors who did not already evacuate the area to stay inside.

"This is a very dangerous and a very real situation," Cantrell said.

Cantrell said the she and other officials expect the storm to have fully passed over New Orleans by Monday morning. But until the storm is over, she warned residents not to rush out from their homes until it is safe.

"As it relates to Monday morning, we should see some signs that we are moving out of this," she said. "But you are not to come outside until you receive more information from the city of New Orleans."

Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said people "absolutely need to be indoors" for the remainder of the storm.

"These are life-threatening winds," Arnold said. "They will cause downed power lines, structure damage, downed trees and projectiles."

Ida arrives on the anniversary of Katrina

Ida's arrival comes 16 years to the day that Hurricane Katrina first made landfall in southern Louisiana — causing over 1,800 deaths and $125 billion in damage across the region.

Video from Bourbon St. in New Orleans on Sunday showed rain pummeling what is normally a bustling strip for tourists. Strong winds could be heard on the audio from the feed.

Early Sunday morning, the National Hurricane Center announced Ida had been upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane. In its 7 a.m. CT advisory, the center gave an increased sense of urgency about Ida, warning of "life-threatening" storm surges.

Ida is strengthening and could become a Category 5 storm

Jamie Rhome, the acting deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, told NPR the storm's massive size is likely to cause widespread damage across the region.

"You're talking about a wide swath of hurricane force winds pushing inland over this afternoon and evening, impacting the New Orleans area with hurricane force winds and certainly gusts in that those conditions would absolutely bring down trees, widespread power outages," Rhome said Sunday morning, ahead of the storm making landfall.

In a Saturday briefing, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Ida is expected be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit Louisiana since the 1850s.

The governor said he was urging residents all across Louisiana to be careful as residents across the state were beginning to evacuate.

"While the storm will weaken after it makes landfall, it is such a strong storm at the outset that it's going to be extremely powerful as far north as Baton Rouge and even further," Edwards said.

Climate change is making storms much more powerful

Hurricanes are more likely to be larger and more powerful when they form over hotter ocean water, as Ida has done. Climate change is causing global sea surface temperatures to rise.

"We're seeing the impacts from hurricanes increase — owing to climate change — due to a myriad of reasons. They tend to hold more rain in a warmer environment," Rhome said. "In the summer, it's muggy [and] holds more moisture. Same is true with with hurricanes. If you're warmer, they can hold more moisture, which means you get more rain or more potential for really heavy rainfall."

In a virtual briefing on Saturday, President Biden said Americans have seen other extreme weather events in recent weeks. He also noted the lingering effect of the coronavirus pandemic on emergency response efforts.

"Hurricane Ida is coming fast on the heels of a tragic flooding in Tennessee, Tropical Storm Henri, and you've all been part of the COVID-19 response for so many months now," the president said. "You've been overwhelmed, but you don't show it. You've been incredible."

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