When Hurricane Ida hits the Louisiana coast, it is predicted to be a Category Four hurricane. Category Four is the second-highest on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, with a minimum wind strength of 130 miles per hour.
The National Weather Service is forecasting a “life-threatening storm surge” — as high as 11 feet near New Orleans and 15 feet around the mouth of the Mississippi River — when Hurricane Ida makes landfall along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.
It warned of “catastrophic wind damage” and said Ida could generate tornadoes. “The time to act is NOW,” the New Orleans branch of the US National Weather Service urged in a tweet.
