Hurricane Ida began an hourslong assault on the Baton Rouge area early Sunday, pelting the region with heavy rain while its compact eye was well offshore and threatening to bring myriad problems to weather weary south Louisiana over the coming days.
Incredible winds, at 150 mph as it churned offshore, were just shy of making Ida a Category 5 storm. Gov. John Bel Edwards said the hurricane could be the worst to hit Louisiana since the 1850s. Officials urged people to find a safe place and to stay put.
“Be off the road as this thing comes through,” Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre said before the expected arrival of 55 to 75 mph winds.
Since the storm formed last week, forecasters always had Louisiana in its path. Landfall predictions varied — near Morgan City at one point, near Cocodrie at another.
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As Hurricane Ida approaches Louisiana, shelters are opening up in the Baton Rouge area and across the the state.
As residents rushed to wrap up their storm preparations, the National Hurricane Center said Ida's eye would move inland just west of Port Fouchon and charge past Houma and Thibodaux. By midnight, it'd be in the Baton Rouge area with winds of 45 to 55 mph and gusts to 70 mph.
"I want everyone to remain calm. Be safe and shelter in place," Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said Sunday. "I understand people having anxiety. I want to encourage everyone, let them know that at the end of the day, we'll be alright."
The city-parish has more than 180 water rescue personnel across all its first-responding agencies on standby.
While the storm's center would likely be in Mississippi by sun-up Monday, the region likely faced a long recovery, and even more trouble.
Baton Rouge reached its average annual rainfall total more than a month ago and was poised to take on 6 to 10 inches more.
Rainfall predictions ranged from 6 to 24 inches, and across the area it would fall on already soggy ground. In addition to flash flooding in the height of the storm, backwater flooding posed a potential threat for later in the week.
For the threat at hand, families began trickling into shelters across the region, but because of the coronavirus threat had to be socially distanced from one another. Cots stood by at the Lamar-Dixon gym near Gonzales and the Lowery Middle School in Donaldsonville, said Rachael Wilkinson, director of the parish’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
Anyone who appeared to have symptoms of COVID-19 could use an isolation area, and gowns, masks and gloves were available for anyone who wanted them, but the idea was to get people out of the storm's path as much as possible.
“Our first threat, though, is the hurricane and getting people to safety,” she said.
Nearly two dozen Assumption Parish residents were already at the parish Community Center in Napoleonville, which opened as a shelter of last resort Sunday morning.
"As the weather deteriorates, we're getting calls," he said. "I expect we're going to have a quiet a bit of people by lunchtime, so they're just trickling in now, but more and more calls and so forth."
Assumption officials ordered a mandatory evacuation Saturday morning, but Boudreaux said he believes many people didn't leave the parish.
The parish on the fringes of the Atchafalaya Basin doesn't have a regional flood protection system, but a series of ring levees around neighborhoods with their own pump systems.
Most have backups if power goes out, he said.
In Denham Springs, gusts of wind flew down Range Avenue, slinging increasingly heavy rains onto storefronts. Occasional drivers on last-minute provisions runs whipped through the puddles — but pedestrians were nowhere to be seen. Most business, like Heritage House Antiques, were boarded up.
“I’m nervous, like everybody else,” said John Cavalier, owner of Cavalier House Books. “You can only do so much, and you do as much as you can, and then you just wait and see what happens.”
A storm drain outside the bookstore’s door has pushed water through the door, so Cavalier chose not to board up the bookstore’s windows. Sandbags and a small barrier device were placed there instead. Cavalier had spent yesterday organizing the store’s interior in anticipation of having to make insurance claims.
“The waiting is the part we’re doing now,” he said.
Frustrated drivers pulled up to empty pumps at a Circle K gas station on the edge of Plaquemine as rain began to lash on the town. The pumps lacked that universal symbol for no gas — plastic bags over the handles — leaving many people to try several before driving away.
“We’re just going to pray,” said Addis resident Lionel Gilbert, riding out the storm at home with his wife and kids.
Plaquemine resident Chante Delone said she was trying to top off her vehicle with gasoline for a possible last-minute evacuation ahead of the storm.
“If it gets too bad, we may still leave,” said Delone, who would wait the storm out with her kids if she stays. “I might get out of here if I have trouble with my generator when I get home.”
Addis resident Tereska Lawrence also unsuccessfully tried to top off on gas before heading home to wait the storm out with family.
“I wasn’t going to stay, but there’s nowhere to go. Everything is booked up, totally,” Lawrence said.
A hurricane was a new experience for some.
“It’s going to be wild, I don’t know what to expect,” said Karter Warner, who moved to Brusly from Arkansas less than a year ago. “It sounds kind of bad, but I’m a little excited to see it happen. I’m just not excited for the damage. You stay excited to stop from freaking out.”
Staff writers Ellyn Couvillion, David J. Mitchell, Paul Cobler, Terry L. Jones and James Finn contributed to this story.