US Gulf Coast residents flee 'extremely dangerous' Hurricane Ida

Tens of thousands of US Gulf of Mexico residents are fleeing the area as hurricane Ida intensified over warm waters in the region on Saturday.

Ida was about 200 miles (320 km) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River on Saturday evening, packing winds of 105 miles per hour (169 kph) and aiming for the Louisiana shoreline, according to the National Hurricane Center.

"We're concerned about explosive development shortly before it makes landfall," said Jim Foerster, chief meteorologist at DTN, which provides weather advice to oil and transportation firms.

Ida could make a US landfall on Sunday night as an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

It is expected to generate winds of 140 miles per hour (225 kph), heavy downpours. Meanwhile, ocean levels could rise as much as 15 feet (4.5 meters) in some places.

Widespread evacuations of low-lying and coastal areas have been ordered which, in result, jammed highways and led some gasoline stations to run dry as residents and vacationers fled the seashore.

The storm could cause serious damage close to 1 million homes along the coast, with potential reconstruction costs projected to go beyond $220 billion, according to CoreLogic.

Winds could be strong enough to destroy dwellings and knock out power for weeks or longer and some areas, which suffer a direct hit, could be uninhabitable for weeks or months, according to the hurricane center.

"We have a very serious situation on our hands," Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said at a briefing. "This will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in the state of Louisiana since at least the 1850s."

“This is kind of an alarming situation,” said Jim Rouiller, lead meteorologist at the Energy Weather Group. “It could be catastrophic.”

President Joe Biden, who has declared a state of emergency for Louisiana, said Saturday he had spoken to governors of states in the Gulf of Mexico region and has coordinated with electric utilities in preparation for Ida.

"We've prepositioned food, water, generators and other supplies in the area. Power restoration and mobile communications support teams are also en route. We've also closely coordinated with the electric utilities to restore power as soon as possible," Biden said at a briefing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

He also said FEMA sent 500 emergency response personnel in Texas and Louisiana besides 2,000 FEMA workers already supporting the COVID response in the region.

Meanwhile, as of late Saturday, 492 flights had been canceled in New Orleans, Dallas, and Houston through Monday, FlightAware, an airline tracking service, reported.

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