Hurricane Ida is is expected to be a major landfalling hurricane on Sunday evening with a projected Category 4 status. Devastating winds and storm surge threaten nearly 1 million homes.
The central Louisiana coast is at risk of bearing the brunt of Hurricane Ida’s extreme storm surge potential, with an estimated 941,392 homes in the Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi coastal areas exposed to storm surge damage, according to CoreLogic, a property data and analytics provider. Louisiana has 800,349 homes at risk with a reconstruction cost value of $192.65 billion.
These homes have a combined reconstruction cost value of approximately $220.37 billion. Hurricane-driven storm surge can cause significant property damage when high winds and low pressure cause water to amass inside the storm, releasing a powerful rush over land when the hurricane moves onshore.
Due to the intensity and size of Hurricane Ida’s wind field, a trifecta of impacts is expected: damaging winds between 130 to 156 mph, life-threatening storm surge of up to 15 feet, and extremely heavy, widespread rainfall between 10 to 15 inches.
“Atmospheric conditions are highly favorable for rapid intensification after Ida emerges from Cuba on Saturday into Sunday,” said Daniel Betten, meteorologist and senior leader for weather science at CoreLogic. “Ida will also be passing over an extremely warm loop current, which is known to contribute to the rapid intensification of hurricanes in the central Gulf of Mexico, most famously seen with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.”
Hurricane Ida is the fourth named hurricane of the 2021 season and the first projected major hurricane at Category 4. As Ida approaches the Gulf coastline, its path will become more certain and the metropolitan areas at risk will narrow.
For a complete view of total storm surge and hurricane wind risk for all Atlantic and Gulf Coast states metropolitan areas, download the full CoreLogic 2021 Hurricane Report.