Sixteen after Katrina, the people of Louisiana are preparing for the worst. On Saturday August 28, Hurricane Ida moved away from the coast of Cuba, which it had reached on Friday evening. It is now heading towards Louisiana, in the United States, which it should touch on Sunday evening. In the meantime, it could take the force of a “major hurricane” and become “extremely dangerous”.
The Category 1 hurricane made landfall Friday evening August 27 in Pinar del Rio province in western Cuba with heavy rains and sustained winds of 130 km / h, said the Cuban Meteorological Institute (Insmet).
More than 10,000 people were evacuated and electricity was cut off preventively, in this region which has become the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic on the island. In the capital, Havana, near this province, public transport was suspended as a precaution at midday, and thousands of people had been evacuated.
The hurricane is moving northwest at a speed of 24 km / h. It had previously passed through the Isle of Youth, south of the main island of Cuba, but the winds and rains it caused resulted in only minor damage to agriculture and to dwellings including the roof was torn off. The American Hurricane Center (NHC) estimates that it could become “a major hurricane” and “extremely dangerous”, which could reach category 4 (on a scale of 5), and cause winds of more than 200 km / h on American soil.
1,800 dead in 2005
Faced with Ida’s arrival, Joe Biden on Friday approved a declaration of state of emergency for Louisiana to bring a “federal assistant” to the preparation efforts, voluntary and mandatory evacuation orders having been decreed in some places.
It is an extreme challenge for our state, ”worried the governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, while his state is currently facing a new outbreak of Covid-19, which is undermining the functioning of hospitals.
Louisiana is frequently affected by hurricanes and has not yet fully healed the wounds inflicted by the trauma of 2005, when Katrina ravaged Louisiana, killing more than 1,800. During this traumatic episode, New Orleans was 80% flooded after the dikes protecting the city had given way.