(AP) — Sure, Hurricane Ida looks an awful lot like Hurricane Katrina, bearing down on the same part of Louisiana on the same calendar date.
But hurricane experts say there are differences in the two storms 16 years apart that may prove key and may make Ida nastier in some ways but less dangerous in others.
Ida is smaller than 2005’s Katrina but it is more focused.
Ida is also coming to the same general area from a slightly different angle that may put New Orleans and its Lake Pontchartrain in more of a bullseye than Katrina did.
Original Story
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Ida has blasted ashore along the Louisiana coast as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S., rushing toward New Orleans and one of the nation’s most important industrial corridors.
The Category 4 storm hit Sunday with winds of 150 mph (230 kph).
It was the same date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier.
The hurricane was churning through the far southern Louisiana wetlands, with more than 2 million people who live in and around New Orleans and Baton Rouge up next.
New Orleans officials say the levees that failed and caused catastrophic flooding in Katrina have been significantly strengthened the past 16 years.
