Hurricane Ida hits Louisiana, cuts power in New Orleans

SANAA, Aug. 30 (YPA) – Hurricane Ida swept through Louisiana just before noon Sunday, passing through the Gulf of Mexico, accompanied with  150 mile-per-hour winds, heavy rains and strong waves, after it made landfall in category 4.

Power was cut across New Orleans, Louisiana’s most populous city, according to the local utility company, hours after warnings of possible torrential rains were issued.

Sixteen years after Hurricane Katrina, Ida hit the coast during the afternoon near Port Forshone, Louisiana, which is the center of the energy industry off the Gulf Coast.

Flash flooding was reported by the National Hurricane Center across southeastern Louisiana.

Nearly all offshore Gulf oil production was suspended, and major ports along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts were closed to shipping.

Farren Clark, a Nicholls State University professor who studied Katrina’s impact and was riding out the storm, called the arrival of Ida “nerve-wracking.”

E.M