Chicago woman talks about Ida, her first experience with a hurricane
By
Zachary Rosenthal, AccuWeather staff writer
Updated Aug 31, 2021 8:33 AM EST
Both locals and visitors in New Orleans told AccuWeather that they were surprised by the relentless wind that Hurricane Ida brought to the region.
As Hurricane Ida rapidly intensified on its approach to the Louisiana coastline, where it made landfall Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane, tourists and locals scrambled to get out of the city, with mixed results.
The leveed areas of the city were not placed under a mandatory evacuation, with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, at a late Friday press briefing, citing an inability to implement contraflow traffic on nearby highways. However, a voluntary evacuation order was issued, and those in and around the Big Easy took notice.
"People took this one serious," New Orleans resident Martha Wiggins told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell. "Unfortunately, I think for a lot of people it comes down to financially ... evacuating is expensive and not everybody has the ability to do it."
Wiggins, who has lived in New Orleans for the past 12 years, packed her bags and left her home in the New Orleans neighborhood of Treme for a hotel room in downtown New Orleans, alongside her mother and her two cats.
"These storms come out of nowhere, and most of us are not prepared financially for this, even if it is hurricane season," Wiggins said.
Greg Nazarko, manager of the Bourbon Bandstand bar on Bourbon Street, stands outside the club, where he rode out the storm, after Hurricane Ida that knocked out power in New Orleans, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Joanne Najdala, a Chicago resident who traveled to New Orleans to celebrate a friend's birthday, found herself stranded in the city, unable to get a flight out or find a rental car.
"I honestly didn’t think the winds would be this bad," Najdala told Wadell. "I didn’t think that everything would be closed this bad. I thought there would at least be some places that would be open so we could get some more food."
Another out-of-towner told Wadell a similar story a night earlier. Marguerite Alexander of Philadelphia was one of many people who found themselves stranded at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Aiport on Saturday night as Ida neared the coast.
Alexander said that after weather forecasts indicated a hurricane was approaching, she decided to head back north. But, she said, her flight had been canceled, re-booked and then canceled again and that she was unable to secure a rental car or book a hotel room.
"We're stuck," she lamented. "No help for us at all."
Alexander said she was "a little nervous about the storm because I've never really been in a hurricane." But she conceded she was "more upset" about the travel nightmare the storm had caused.
As the storm continued to pound New Orleans on Sunday, the entire city lost power, leaving those without generators totally in the dark. According to reporting from The Washington Post, restoring power to all of New Orleans and its suburbs could take days or even weeks after Ida knocked down all eight transmission towers that bring power into the city.
Hurricane Ida became the third hurricane since record-keeping began in 1851 to strike Louisiana with 150-mph sustained winds. And it struck on the exact date of the 16th anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, which made two landfalls as a Category 3 storm and killed more than 1,800 people, an eerie coincidence that was not lost on many of New Orleans' residents who experienced Katrina firsthand.
"I can’t imagine what they are going through right now, what they are thinking about and all the feelings and things this is bringing up for them," Wiggins said. "The people that stayed, the people that left, that worry, like Katrina, what they are coming back to?"
Reporting from Bill Wadell.
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News / Hurricane
Chicago woman talks about Ida, her first experience with a hurricane
By Zachary Rosenthal, AccuWeather staff writer
Updated Aug 31, 2021 8:33 AM EST
Both locals and visitors in New Orleans told AccuWeather that they were surprised by the relentless wind that Hurricane Ida brought to the region.
As Hurricane Ida rapidly intensified on its approach to the Louisiana coastline, where it made landfall Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane, tourists and locals scrambled to get out of the city, with mixed results.
The leveed areas of the city were not placed under a mandatory evacuation, with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, at a late Friday press briefing, citing an inability to implement contraflow traffic on nearby highways. However, a voluntary evacuation order was issued, and those in and around the Big Easy took notice.
"People took this one serious," New Orleans resident Martha Wiggins told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell. "Unfortunately, I think for a lot of people it comes down to financially ... evacuating is expensive and not everybody has the ability to do it."
Wiggins, who has lived in New Orleans for the past 12 years, packed her bags and left her home in the New Orleans neighborhood of Treme for a hotel room in downtown New Orleans, alongside her mother and her two cats.
"These storms come out of nowhere, and most of us are not prepared financially for this, even if it is hurricane season," Wiggins said.
Greg Nazarko, manager of the Bourbon Bandstand bar on Bourbon Street, stands outside the club, where he rode out the storm, after Hurricane Ida that knocked out power in New Orleans, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Joanne Najdala, a Chicago resident who traveled to New Orleans to celebrate a friend's birthday, found herself stranded in the city, unable to get a flight out or find a rental car.
"I honestly didn’t think the winds would be this bad," Najdala told Wadell. "I didn’t think that everything would be closed this bad. I thought there would at least be some places that would be open so we could get some more food."
Another out-of-towner told Wadell a similar story a night earlier. Marguerite Alexander of Philadelphia was one of many people who found themselves stranded at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Aiport on Saturday night as Ida neared the coast.
Alexander said that after weather forecasts indicated a hurricane was approaching, she decided to head back north. But, she said, her flight had been canceled, re-booked and then canceled again and that she was unable to secure a rental car or book a hotel room.
"We're stuck," she lamented. "No help for us at all."
Alexander said she was "a little nervous about the storm because I've never really been in a hurricane." But she conceded she was "more upset" about the travel nightmare the storm had caused.
As the storm continued to pound New Orleans on Sunday, the entire city lost power, leaving those without generators totally in the dark. According to reporting from The Washington Post, restoring power to all of New Orleans and its suburbs could take days or even weeks after Ida knocked down all eight transmission towers that bring power into the city.
Hurricane Ida became the third hurricane since record-keeping began in 1851 to strike Louisiana with 150-mph sustained winds. And it struck on the exact date of the 16th anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, which made two landfalls as a Category 3 storm and killed more than 1,800 people, an eerie coincidence that was not lost on many of New Orleans' residents who experienced Katrina firsthand.
"I can’t imagine what they are going through right now, what they are thinking about and all the feelings and things this is bringing up for them," Wiggins said. "The people that stayed, the people that left, that worry, like Katrina, what they are coming back to?"
Reporting from Bill Wadell.
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