Enlarge image
According to experts, hurricanes are increasing in number and strength as a result of climate change
Photo: ADREES LATIF / REUTERS
Hurricane Ida, classified by meteorologists as "extremely dangerous", has reached the US state of Louisiana. The cyclone hit land on Sunday noon with winds of up to 150 miles per hour near Port Fourchon south of New Orleans - 16 years to the day after the devastating Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans and killed more than 1,800 people had torn.
Just over an hour after the hurricane hit land, the operations center in the city of New Orleans reported "widespread power outages."
The interactive map from the local energy supplier Entergy showed around 170,000 households without electricity.
According to the Poweroutage.us website, around 233,000 customers across the state were without power.
In New Orleans, the emergency services stopped working for the time being because of the dangerous winds.
According to the broadcaster CNN, the extensions of the storm of hurricane strength 4 had already caused flooding in the city of Grand Isle on a barrier island south of New Orleans.
The US Hurricane Warning Center reported flooding in two other locations in Louisiana and Mississippi.
"Find the safest place in your house and stay there until the storm is over," wrote Louisiana's Governor John Bel Edwards after the arrival of "Ida" on Twitter.
Local authorities are imposing curfews
Several counties in Louisiana have imposed curfew.
For example, in the East Baton Rouge district, where around 440,000 people live, this applies from Sunday evening to Monday morning, said the mayor of Baton Rouge on Twitter.
The authorities have urged all residents who have not already fled to other parts of the country to stay in their homes in view of the impending extreme wind gusts and possible flooding.
The neighboring district of West Baton Rouge also imposed a night curfew for security reasons, as did the neighboring district of Livingston to the east.
In the run-up to the storm, hundreds of thousands of New Orleans residents had already left the city in the past few days.
New Orleans' city council had issued an evacuation order for areas outside the levee and lock system that protects the low-lying city on the Mississippi Delta.
Business owners boarded up their shop windows and piled sandbags.
According to experts, cyclones are increasing in number and strength as a result of climate change and the associated warming of the sea surface.
kim / dpa / AFP