Joe Biden pledges aid to help states recover from Hurricane Ida as storm approaches

Forecasters said Ida could make a US landfall on Sunday as an ‘extremely dangerous’ Category 4 storm, generating winds of 140mph

Biden on Saturday said 500 federal emergency response workers were in Texas and Louisiana to respond to the storm

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US President Joe Biden speaks during a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) briefing in Washington on Saturday. Photo: Sipa / Bloomberg

Published: 3:52am, 29 Aug 2021Updated: 3:52am, 29 Aug 2021

Hurricane Ida on Saturday intensified over warm Gulf of Mexico waters, prompting tens of thousands to flee coastal areas, while President Joe Biden pledged aid to help states quickly recover once the storm has passed.

Forecasters said Ida could make a US landfall on Sunday as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, generating winds of 140mph (225kph), heavy downpours and a tidal surge that could plunge much of the Louisiana shoreline under several feet of water.

On Saturday afternoon Ida was about 290 miles (470km) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, packing top winds of 100mph (155kph) and aiming for the Louisiana coast, the National Hurricane Centre said.

Members of the National Guard enter the New Orleans Ernest N Morial Convention Centre which is being set up as a shelter before the arrival of Hurricane Ida in New Orleans, Louisiana on Saturday. Photo: The Times-Picayune / The Advocate via AP

“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 transport companies.

Flooding from Ida’s storm surge – high water driven by the hurricane’s winds – could reach between 10 and 15 feet (3 and 4.5 metres) around the mouth of the Mississippi River, with lower levels extending east along the adjacent coastlines of Mississippi and Alabama, the NHC said.