Stephanie Logue

Staff Writer

szl414@psu.edu

New Orleans, known for its melting pot of cultures, has a rich background of passionate and proud customs such as music, a thriving nightlife, various festivals, Creole and Cajun cuisine and unique architecture are among the city’s most well-known features. Unfortunately, just south they will now be known for being hit as one of the hardest regions from Hurricane Ida. 

On August 28th, Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc on Louisiana, the Gulf Coast, and Cuba. Also according to the New Orleans sheriff’s office, Ida killed at least one person and left a million more without power. Buildings were damaged, trees and electrical lines were uprooted, and 911 services were disrupted by the storm’s 150 mph winds.

Hurricane Ida was on her way to hit Louisiana sixteen years after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Mississippi and Louisiana. Katrina, a Category 3 hurricane, was responsible for 1,800 deaths, levee breaches, and catastrophic floods in New Orleans, taking years to recover from

“We’re not the same state we were 16 years ago,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Saturday, pointing to a federal levee system that has seen major improvements since Katrina in 2005 swamped New Orleans. 

“This system is going to be tested,” Edwards said. “The people of Louisiana are going to be tested. But we are resilient and tough people. And we’re going to get through this.”

The Nation Guard stationed 5,000 troops in 14 parishes, according to Edwards, for search and rescue missions using high-water vehicles, boats, and helicopters. Also 10,000 powerline technicians were alerted to be on standby to respond to power shortages.

Ida had to think quickly from a tropical depression just two days before New Orleans officials said there was no time to organize a mandatory evacuation of the city’s 390,000 residents. This task would require intense coordination with the state and neighboring locales to turn highways into one-way routes away from the city. 

Mayor LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans has called for a voluntary evacuation, saying that the time to safely evacuate is running out. According to Collin Arnold, the city’s emergency management director, the city might be subjected to severe winds for up to 10 hours. Officials cautioned people who stayed to expect extensive power interruptions in the coming days due to the extreme temperatures.

Ramsey Green, the city’s senior infrastructure officer, stated that the city’s levee and drainage systems had greatly improved after Hurricane Katrina.

“That said, if we see 10 to 20 inches of rain over an abbreviated period of time, we will see flooding,” Green said.

In Washington, President Joe Biden on Saturday called Ida “very dangerous” and urged Americans “to pay attention and be prepared.” As residents and tourists alike rushed to depart Saturday, lines at gas stations and auto rental businesses became longer.

“We were willing to wait it out but the hotel said we had to leave,” said visitor Lays Lafaurie of Fort Worth, Texas, waiting in a rental car line at the city’s airport. “They said we had to leave by 7 tomorrow morning. But if we’d waited that long there wouldn’t have been any cars left.”

Ida presented a menace far beyond the city limits of New Orleans. From Intracoastal City south of Lafayette to the Mississippi state border, a hurricane warning was issued for over 200 miles of Louisiana’s coastline. 

A tropical storm warning has been issued for the Alabama-Florida border, and a storm surge watch has been issued for Mobile Bay in Alabama. Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama announced a state of emergency for the state’s coastal and western counties on Saturday, warning that Hurricane Ida could bring flooding and tornadoes. 

Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi has advised people to keep off interstate highways so that refugees fleeing Louisiana can get to safety. He stated that 19 shelters have been established to accommodate evacuees. Several casinos on the island were closed when Ida was approaching the Mississippi coast.

Meteorologist Jeff Masters, who flew hurricane missions for the government and founded Weather Underground (a commercial weather service that delivers real-time weather data via the Internet. On its website, Weather Underground offers weather reports for most major cities throughout the world, as well as local weather reports for newspapers and third-party websites), said Ida is forecast to move through “the absolute worst place for a hurricane.” 

Along with the damage hurricane Ida caused, last year hurricane Laura on August 27th, 2020 paved its way as a Category 4 hurricane. Thirty-three  people died in Louisiana and inflicted $17.5 billion in damage. These damages were just more than construccion, it was personal and psychological damage. The hope is everyone can recover from this storm and from Hurricane Laura.