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Hurricane Ida rapidly grew in strength, becoming a dangerous Category 4 hurricane just before hitting the coast.

As Ida moved through some of the warmest ocean water in the world in the northern Gulf of Mexico, its top winds grew by 45 mph to 150 mph in five hours. The day of landfall is the exact date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier.

President Joe Biden approved emergency declarations for Louisiana and Mississippi ahead of Ida’s arrival.

Comparisons to the Aug. 29, 2005, landfall of Katrina weighed heavily on residents bracing for Ida. A Category 3 storm, Katrina was blamed for 1,800 deaths as it caused levee breaches and catastrophic flooding in New Orleans and demolished oceanfront homes in Mississippi. Ida’s hurricane force winds stretched less than 40 miles from the storm’s eye, or less than half the size of Katrina.