Powerful and dangerous Hurricane Ida

38 foot waves offshore of Louisiana as Ida undergoes rapid intensification. No hurricane on record has ever intensified this rapidly this far North in the Atlantic basin dropping 50mb of pressure in 24 hours, and rapid wind speed increase.

Ida has probably reached its peak intensity.

The worst part of the hurricane will be to the East of its path, especially the NE front-right quadrant of the eye track.

Serious damage from wind, rain, flooding, storm surge and waves, tornadoes occur throughout the “cone of uncertainty” and even outside of the cone. Regardless of “Category” every storm’s impacts are unique.

The big concern in addition to New Orleans and loss of life possible anywhere in the storms path is worry over important infrastructure to our economy related to both energy and shipping. The region has 3 of America’s largest and busiest ports, a key airport, gas and oil refineries and pipes, a nuclear power plant, petrochemical industry etc. Those 3 ports account for over 60% of U.S. grain exports. Past storms have closed some ports for weeks impacting the global economy in a negative way. Port Fourchon on the coast handles 10-15% of U.S. domestic oil.

The storm eye is forecast to track over Louisiana’s industrial belt which is Southwest of NOLA, but New Orleans is also expected to be hit hard. It will be days or weeks before we know with clarity what really happened and where.