Hurricane Ida Makes a Slam in Louisiana!

Linnea Sundquist, Staff Writer

On Monday morning August 30th 2021, Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana with devastating results. The hurricane had weakened 16 hours after reaching Louisiana with a category 4 hurricane leaving 1 million homes without power or running water. The entire city of New Orleans is without power which officials have stated it might be a couple of weeks before any power can be restored. Reports have stated that the winds have picked up a speed as high as 150 mph and have collapsed buildings and left residents stuck on their rooftops. Even though reports have stated that the hurricane has weakened it is still advised to make sure you and your family are still safe because there are still high chances of heavy rainfall and flash flooding as it makes its way to northeastern Mississippi Monday afternoon. 

A highway in Mississippi has collapsed due to the major flooding caused by this tropical storm. This took place Monday night in Lucedale Mississippi and cars were reported to have fallen into a 20ft chasm which left two dead and ten injured. Weather casters have predicted that as the center of Hurricane Ida moves closer to Mississippi the damaging winds will most likely cause more power outages as well as more heavy rain through Tuesday. Flash flood warnings and tornado warnings have been put into effect in some parts of Mississippi and Gulfport. Hurricane Ida has also said to hit areas with flooding in Tennessee and Ohio Valleys through Wednesday. 

There are still many people who have evacuated their homes to seek safety from the hurricane and have been advised to stay where they are until further notice because of roads being closed and a lot of damage that has occurred. The National Weather Service had issued a heat advisory in Southern Louisiana and Mississippi from 10 am to 5pm because it is supposed to get up to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. There are a lot of peoples lives at stake from people having their homes destroyed and being without any power for a couple of days or maybe even weeks.The mayor of Jean Lafitte, Tim Kerner, has stated that as soon as the storm ends we are going to send an “army” to help the residents of Louisiana.