New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell (LaToya Cantrell) said that Friday’s mandatory evacuation was too late and urged residents of the city to voluntarily evacuate or take shelter in place when Hurricane Ida approaches.
On Friday, Ida’s maximum sustained wind speed was about 80 miles per hour, which is expected to increase as it heads towards Louisiana. Although Cantrell said it was too late to force the evacuation of the entire city, the Democratic Party did order the forced evacuation of areas outside the city’s embankment protection system.
“Hurricane Ida poses a huge threat to the people of New Orleans,” Cantrell said at a press conference, the mayor’s office instructed Weekly newspaper When asked to comment. “Time is not on our side… This city cannot issue a mandatory evacuation order because we don’t have time.”
“We have turned to… voluntary evacuation-absolutely-now is the time,” she added. “Because there is not enough time, [other residents] Refuge on the spot is required. Squat down, this is very important. “
Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that by Sunday, when it may pass through New Orleans and other areas of the Gulf Coast, the large-scale storm is expected to become an “extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane.”
The National Hurricane Center said in an advisory report: “A rapid increase is expected in the next one or two days, and Ada is expected to become an extremely dangerous major hurricane as it approaches the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday.”
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Louisiana Governor John Bell Edwards announced earlier on Friday that it was still a tropical storm due to a state of emergency due to Ida.President Joe Biden The emergency declaration was soon approved.
At a press conference later in the day, Edwards warned residents that the upcoming hurricane “will be a very serious storm” and urged people in the state to “prepare as best as we can.”
Hurricane Ida made landfall in Cuba on Friday night, bringing strong winds and intensive rainfall to the western part of the island nation before entering the Gulf.
“This surprised us. It’s really scary,” Ivonne Deulofeu, a resident of Vinales, a small town in western Cuba, told the Associated Press. “We had to nail the door of the room… the plants, they are gone.”
Ada is expected to make landfall on Sunday, which coincides with the 16th anniversary of New Orleans’ hit by Hurricane Katrina, one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall in North America. Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,800 people, displaced millions of people, and caused billions of dollars in damage.
