Tropical Storm Ida threatened to quickly grow into a major hurricane and make landfall as soon as Saturday night, with most of the forecast models putting Southwest Mississippi in the danger zone.
Ida was scraping the southern coast of Cuba on Thursday. At 4 p.m. Thursday, the storm was 100 miles southwest of Negril, Jamaica, and had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, moving northwest at 14 mph.
Forecasters predicted Ida would pass over the Cayman Islands Thursday night as it grew into a tropical storm, then over western Cuba today before emerging in the southeastern and central Gulf of Mexico tonight and Saturday as a hurricane.
Conditions were lining up to give the storm ample opportunity to rapidly strengthen ahead of landfall, possibly as a Category 2 storm.
“Maximum wind speed at landfall is right around 100 mph, which makes it a strong Category 2,” Kevin Gilmore, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in New Orleans, said in a briefing Thursday afternoon.
The National Hurricane Center predicted landfall from 8 pm. Saturday to 8 a.m. Sunday. Where remained the question, but with so many forecast models apparently in agreement, Gilmore said now is the time for residents in the path — including Southwest Mississippi — to get ready.
Ida is expected to bring widespread flash flooding, coastal storm surge, tornadoes and damaging winds, Gilmore said.
“Should this forecast hold true as you get to later this weekend, that’s where we’re going to see impacts across the state of Louisiana,” he said.
He urged residents to prepare and stock up now, not as the storm hits.
“If you’re anywhere in these area of southeastern Louisiana or southern Mississippi, you need to have your preparations done before this time,” Gilmore said. “Take this seriously.”
And after 2020’s record-setting hurricane season, Gilmore advised residents to make sure their leftover hurricane supplies haven’t expired.
“If you happen to already have a kit, make sure you refresh those items,” he said. “This is stuff that might have gone old, especially since last year, when we had a slew of tropical storms impact this area.”
