Hurricane Ida makes landfall on Katrina anniversary as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm

That’s just 7 mph below the Category 5 ranking, and if Ida arrives at that level, it would be just the fifth to do so on the US mainland.

Last year’s Hurricane Laura and the Last Island Hurricane of 1856 share the current record at 150 mph.

The northern eyewall is moving onshore along the southeast Louisiana coast, according to the 12 p.m. ET update from the National Hurricane Center. The eyewall is the most dangerous part of a hurricane and contains the highest winds.

The center of Ida was around 25 miles from Grand Isle, Louisiana. A wind gust of 104 mph was recently reported at Southwest Pass, Louisiana. Ida will be making landfall around 1 or 2 p.m. ET when the center of the eye is halfway over the coast. Extreme winds and surge will accompany landfall over the next several hours.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Sunday he expects Ida to be “a big challenge for us.”

Edwards told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that his state “is as ready as we can be,” but he expects Ida to be “a very serious test of our levy systems, especially in our coastal Louisiana.”

The state invested significantly in shoring up the levy system after the catastrophic fail after Katrina. Edwards said Ida “will be the most severe test,” but he expects the levees to hold. “The next 24, 36 hours are just going to be very, very critical for us here in Louisiana.”

Ronald Dufrene, a commercial shrimper, plans to ride out the storm on 100-foot shrimp boat in Jean Lafitte, Louisiana, with his wife. He said he’s stayed on his boat for every storm for the last 42 years.

“I rode out three of them last year. Don’t get me wrong. This is a buzz saw we have coming,” he said. “Mother Nature’s a beast.

“I feel it’s the safest place for me and my family is on that boat. You get on the highway and you drive 10 to 15 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic. … I’ve got enough food and water for months.”

“We’re losing roofs right now,” Legg told CNN.

Legg told CNN his home is safe and he is in a Category 5-rated structure. He said he was a police officer for 15 years and still works with search and rescue efforts to help his community.

Sharlette Landry evacuated Grand Isle, Louisiana, and watched her security camera feeds, which showed water quickly rising before her home lost power Sunday.

On Twitter, Wyatt Northrup wrote from Alabama, “Wind and waves really starting to pickup with #Ida in Fort Morgan.”

A tornado watch is in effect until 8 p.m. ET for parts of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Quick-moving, brief tornadoes will be possible throughout Sunday.

There is also a danger of life-threatening storm surge Sunday in areas along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Ida will become the fourth hurricane to slam Louisiana since last August and the state’s third major hurricane landfall in that time span.

‘We’ll be in a much better place’ than 16 years ago

Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005 as a Category 3 storm with 125 mph sustained winds. Storm surge with Katrina measured up to 24-28 feet, according to the NHC.

The water topped levees and flood walls, and more than 80% of New Orleans flooded. More than 1,500 people in Louisiana died.

Katrina brought storm surge of 15 to 19 feet in eastern New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish, and Plaquemines Parish, while the surge was 10 to 14 feet in western New Orleans along the southern shores of Lake Pontchartrain, according to the NHC.

By comparison, Hurricane Ida is forecast to bring a lower storm surge of 12-16 feet to some areas of southeast Louisiana, the NHC says. And near New Orleans it’s expected to be even lower: 8-12 feet outside New Orleans and 5-8 feet along Lake Pontchartrain.

That’s because the wind field was larger for Katrina: 90 miles from center at landfall, compared to 50 miles for Ida.

“This is a different city than it was August 28th 2005, in terms of infrastructure and safety,” Ramsey Green, New Orleans deputy chief administrative officer for infrastructure, told reporters Saturday at a News Conference ahead of Hurricane Ida’s landfall.

Green called the city’s levee system “an unprecedentedly powerful protection for the city,” which has three lines of defense: the coast, the wetlands and the levee system.

“From that perspective, we need to be comfortable and we need to know that we’ll be in a much better place than we were 16 years ago,” Green said. “That said, if we have 10 to 20 inches of rain over an abbreviated period of time, we will see flooding. We don’t know at this moment — we see 15 to 20 inches over 48 hours or less, and we can handle it, depending on the event.”

Schools closed, flights canceled

Officials throughout the state have implored people to evacuate, with some issuing mandatory orders to do so.

Arnold urged people to stock up on enough food and water for at least three days.

“We say the first 72 (hours) is on you,” Arnold said. “The first three days of this will be difficult for responders to get to you.”

The NWS warned of “structural damage to buildings, with many washing away” as well as winds that could bring “widespread power and communication outages.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tweeted, “Stunning video taken from inside the eye of #Ida this morning by the NESDIS Ocean Winds Research team during a flight on the @NOAA_HurrHunter P3 aircraft @NOAASatellites.”

Tulane University in New Orleans is closed Sunday and Monday, less than a week after students returned to campus.

In Mississippi, at least 15 school districts and universities will be closed Monday, with the majority of schools announcing plans to resume classes on Tuesday, pending the weather forecast.

Nearly 65,000 power outages have been reported across Louisiana, poweroutage.us.

Energy Louisiana said Sunday some of its customers could be without power for weeks.

The company warned that while 90% of customers will likely have their power restored in a timely manner, flooding and storm damage may prevent crews from accessing certain areas.

The company said it expects to deploy around 16,000 restoration personnel once the storm passes.

Region prepares as landfall approaches

Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced Friday evening that the National Weather Service and Edwards had indicated there was no time to implement contraflow traffic, meaning New Orleans could not issue a mandatory evacuation for areas inside the levee system.

Contraflow is when authorities use some lanes of traffic for travel in the opposite direction of what was intended so more vehicles can leave an area.

Cantrell on Saturday said that if people planned to voluntarily evacuate — which she recommended — it was time to go.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said Friday that once the storm starts, people need to stay off the roads to protect first responders.

As the storm approached, mandatory evacuations were ordered for parts of at least seven Louisiana parishes as well as the towns of Grande Isle and Port Fourchon. Voluntary evacuations were issued in six parishes.

With 2,450 patients in the hospital with Covid-19, Edwards reiterated his concern that Ida is colliding with a fourth wave of infections throughout the state.

“I will tell you it’s going to be a very, very challenging storm for our state, and it comes at a very difficult time as well,” he said.