widthAs danger is approaching hurricane “Ada” has imposed a curfew in several counties in Louisiana in the United States. For example, the mayor of Baton Rouge said on Twitter that there are approximately 440,000 people living in the East Baton Rouge area. This applies from Sunday evening (local time) to Monday morning.
In light of the upcoming extreme gusts and possible flooding, the authorities have urged all residents who have not yet fled to other parts of the country to stay at home.For security reasons, the neighbouring West Baton Rouge area has also implemented once a night curfew, And to the east of the neighboring Livingston area.
The center of Hurricane Ida hit the coast of Port Fulchion at noon (local time) on Sunday, and was supposed to move by land towards Baton Rouge. Four-fifths of the cyclones should weaken, but at least it should be a first-degree hurricane over Baton Rouge.
More than an hour after the hurricane hit the land, the operations center in New Orleans reported a “massive blackout.” An interactive map by the local energy provider Entergy shows that approximately 170,000 households have no electricity. According to the Poweroutage.us website, approximately 233,000 customers across the state have lost power. In New Orleans, emergency services temporarily suspended work due to dangerous winds.
Photos and videos from local media have shown that after the first foothills of the storm arrived, the first flood and strong wind occurred on Sunday morning. NHC measured water levels two meters higher in coastal wetlands south of New Orleans. At the city’s airport, there are gusts with wind speeds exceeding 100 kilometers per hour.
“Hurricane Ida poses a direct threat to the people of New Orleans,” Mayor Latoya Cantrell warned in advance. As the storm approached quickly, there was no more time to order the entire city forcibly evacuation. Therefore, she only ordered the evacuation of the particularly endangered areas outside the dam. New Orleans is almost completely surrounded by water-Lake Pontchartrain to the north, Lake Bogne to the east, and wetlands along the mouth of the Mississippi River to the south.
The NHC warned that a “life-threatening” storm surge of nearly five meters is expected in parts of the southwestern Louisiana coast of New Orleans where the storm hits land. At Lake Borgne, it is about four meters, and at Lake Pontchartrain, it is about two meters. Due to the hurricane, Mississippi and some neighboring states east of Alabama also issued flood and tornado warnings.
Governor Edwards said that despite the hurricane, coastal hospitals could not be evacuated because there were too many patients with corona. He said that currently there are 4.6 million residents in the state and 2,450 patients are being treated for Covid-19. Louisiana and surrounding states no longer have the capacity to receive more patients. For these facilities, despite the generators, long-term power outages caused by hurricanes are a great danger. Edwards said that the state has mobilized about 10,000 workers to quickly restore electricity. Louisiana and surrounding states are in the midst of a severe corona wave.
