Hurricane Ida is now in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico and it’s expected to strengthen as it moves over warm water towards Louisiana. Ida is expected to make landfall in Terrebonne Parish as a Category Four storm. Governor John Bel Edwards says tropical storm-force winds could start impacting coastal portions of southeast Louisiana tonight…
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Ida is expected to bring 140-mile per hour winds to the coast and 100-mile per hour winds well inland. 10 to 15 inches of rain could fall over southeast Louisiana and Ben Schott with the National Weather Service says up to 20 inches is possible…
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The Louisiana National Guard is staging highwater vehicles, boats, engineer work teams, and other assets across 13 parishes.

Once Ida makes landfall tomorrow, the forecast track shows the storm moving northwest towards Franklin and New Iberia and then turning towards the northeast, past Baton Rouge and towards Natchez, Mississippi. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says sugarcane farmers are keeping a close eye on Ida’s forecasted track…
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The state’s largest healthcare system, Ochsner Health says they don’t plan on having to transfer any patients out of their hospitals ahead of Hurricane Ida. CEO Warner Thomas says they are prepared with water, fuel, and generators.
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However, Thomas says Ochsner’s ability to accept a large influx of patients from other facilities, like smaller hospitals and nursing homes, that could be faced with evacuations during the hurricane, could be extremely difficult due to COVID stretching resources.