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The Mississippi Coast is under hurricane and flood watches as Category 2 Hurricane Ida moves into the Gulf of Mexico with maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour.
A 6 p.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center includes a hurricane watch from Grand Isle, La., to Mexico Beach, Fla.
The Coast could begin experiencing tropical force winds of 74 mph or higher by Monday afternoon, with flooding also expected in low-lying areas, the National Weather Service told emergency managers in coastal Louisiana and Mississippi Sunday afternoon. Along with winds pushing tides inland, the storm is forecast to produce 3 to 5 inches of rain.
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency officials and emergency management officials on the Coast met through a conference call after the NWS briefing.
Emergency managers in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties agreed to monitor the storm overnight and scheduled another conference call with MEMA for 6 a.m. Monday.
They will decide then whether to recommend or mandate any evacuations of low-lying areas. The opening of some shelters would accompany any evacuations.
At 6 p.m., the National Hurricane Center reported that the center of Ida was about 140 miles west-northwest of Cuba’s western tip and about 445 miles south-southeast of the Mississippi River’s mouth. Maximum sustained winds were 100 miles per hour.
Upper-level winds are not conducive to a tropical system, so they should weaken Ida before landfall, the NWS forecasts.
Ida is expected to be a Category 1 hurricane as it makes landfall late Monday or early Tuesday.
The National Weather Service already has issued a coastal flood warning for Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties, in effect until 6 p.m. Tuesday, due to interaction between a strong high pressure over the southeastern states and much lower pressures over the Gulf. They are generating an increasing easterly and onshore flow.
Tides are expected to run 4 to 5 feet above normal tonight and 5 to 6 feet on Monday, NWS says, especially in Hancock County, where tidal waterways already are full. Hancock County Emergency Management Director Brian Adams said residents in low-lying areas should already be preparing for flooding today by moving out vehicles and securing their property.
In Harrison County, Emergency manager Rupert Lacy said, “Our concern is going to be the impacting coastal water and the rain on top of it.”
Find updates today at sunherald.com and in Monday’s Sun Herald.
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