Ida intensifies into ‘dangerous’ Category 4 hurricane

Hurricane Ida intensified into an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane as it made its way towards the U.S. Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Sunday.

With top sustained winds of 145 mph, Ida was located about 100 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River river, the NHC said in an advisory.

It said that Ida, which is expected to make landfall in southeastern Louisiana on Sunday, was now a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale, a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane’s maximum sustained wind speed.

The hurricane could bring a “life-threatening storm surge, potentially catastrophic wind damage and flooding rainfall” to the northern gulf coast starting Sunday morning, the NHC said.

Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics

Louisiana’s Gov. John Bel Edwards said Saturday that Ida will be one of the strongest to hit the state since at least the 1850s. He said forecasters were “extremely confident in the current track and the intensity as forecasted for Hurricane Ida, and you don’t really hear them speaking very often about that level of confidence.”

With all Sunday flights canceled at the New Orleans Airport, tens of thousands of motorists have sought to flee the region, clogging highways.

As the city marks the 16-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, those remaining are bracing for the worst.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell told a new conference on Saturday that the hurricane had developed “more rapidly than anyone has prepared for and there are no indications at all that it will weaken.”

She said it was too late for the city to order a mandatory evacuation and called for residents to either evacuate the city voluntarily or shelter in place and “hunker down.”