Hurricane Ida 2021.
Tuesday the National Hurricane Center issued its final report on Hurricane Ida. State climatologist Barry Keim says there was one major takeaway from the findings.
“The first and probably most important thing is that it confirms the landfall strength of Hurricane Ida as a category four hurricane with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour,” he said.
The report confirmed Ida’s status as one of the strongest storms to ever hit Louisiana, tied with Hurricane Laura in 2020 and the 1856 Last Island Hurricane.
Keim says we’re fortunate the damage wasn’t more extensive.
“Clearly one for the record books not soon to be forgotten,” said Keim. “But obviously it could have been a whole lot worse if we would’ve had more storm surge or higher rainfall totals associated with it.”
The storm caused more than $18 billion in damage to Louisiana, but the cost of the lives lost during and after made it that much more tragic says Keim.
“We had two drownings and two people were killed inside of buildings,” Keim added.”But what’s really sad is Ida indirectly caused 26 additional deaths, which, it kind of pains me to see those kind of numbers.”
Keim says that models indicate another active hurricane season is on the way.
“The prognosticators are calling for an above-average season again, and the hope is either they’ll stay out at sea or go somewhere else.”
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