File:Hurricane Ida (MODIS 2021-08-31).jpg

English: Hurricane Ida roared ashore at Port Fourchon, Louisiana around noon on August 29, 2021, carrying maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (240 km/h)—a strong Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Wind gusts were measured as high as 172 mph (277 km/h) at Port Fourchon, according to The Weather Channel. Preliminary estimates of wind speed place Hurricane Ida as the fifth-strongest hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States.

On the afternoon of August 27—only two days before landfall in Louisiana—Tropical Storm Ida strengthened to a minimal Category 1 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 km/h) as it approached landfall on Isla de Juventud, Cuba. After making two landfalls on Cuba, Ida marginally strengthened to carry maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 km/h). Between the morning of August 28 and August 29, Ida’s windspeeds exploded from 85 to 150 mph (137 to 241 km/h), thanks to very favorable conditions that were driven in part by very warm surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico. According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), a storm has undergone “rapid intensification” when wind speeds increase by at least 35 mph (56 km/h) within 24 hours.

Hurricane Ida brutalized Louisiana at landfall, bringing a triple-whammy in the form of catastrophic winds, torrential rain, and strong storm surge. According to the FEMA Daily Operation Brief for August 30, the National Weather Service reported that, so far, the heaviest rainfall occurred across southeast Louisiana with observed totals of 5-10 inches with isolated areas of more than 15 inches. Stations at Baton Rouge and New Orleans could not report totals as they were “out”. The Weather Channel reported 15.73 inches fell at Slidell as of 11:00 p.m. on August 30. The FEMA Brief related that three rivers in Mississippi were over flood stage and 2 levees in Louisiana had been overtopped. About 1.1 million customers were without power in the two states. Four hospitals were damaged in Louisiana, with 39 running on generator power. The region is under a Major Disaster Declaration, with Federal Incident Management Assistance Teams (IMAT) deployed to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

Although a full day has passed since landfall, the damage assessment is far from complete. As electrical companies and other assets investigate damage to infrastructure, emergency responders focus on rescue and recovery of people stranded or injured in the storm. Media cautions that it may take weeks to restore power to some areas. Two fatalities have been reported. On August 29, 2021, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of vicious Hurricane Ida making landfall in Louisiana. While the center of the storm circulates over southeastern Louisiana, rain bands reach inland over parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida panhandle.

At 11:00 p.m. EDT on August 30, the National Hurricane Center advised that Ida had become a tropical depression. The center was located about 80 miles (130 km) north-northeast of Jackson, Mississippi and was carrying maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 km/h). Ida is expected to continue to track inland, bringing heavy rain and flooding potential through central Tennessee, Ohio Valley, and the Mid-Atlantic States through the next several days.

For additional NASA imagery and information on Hurricane Ida at landfall, a story published by NASA’s Earth Observatory on August 30 can be reached here.