Hurricane Ida continues to strengthen, eyes the Gulf Coast

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Hurricane Ida is currently a category one, but is still expected to become a major Category four before making a Louisiana landfall on Sunday afternoon.

FIRST ALERT FORECAST: Saturday, August 28(WAFB)

Landfall is subject to adjust east to west, so the forecast tracks will probably do the same over the next 24 hours. The computer models are in better agreement that landfall could be in the Morgan City area, again, not set in stone.

After landfall, Ida will go from a category four down to a category two, which means it will still be a hurricane strength when the center of the storm passes by Baton Rouge. Some models take our local peak wind gusts as high as 100 mph, but again, those are gusts, not sustained winds.

Other than the obvious threat of damaging winds, the immediate coast will have to deal with a varying storm surge, which could be as bad as 10 to 15 feet, especially around the Grand Isle part of the coastline.

Storm surge on the west side of the center circulation won’t be nearly as bad, but still between three to six feet. The other threat, and most probably the most significant, will be our local flooding potential.

We are already in the excessive rainfall threat, and could see upwards of seven to ten inches of rain before all is said and done. Locally heavier amounts will also be possible.