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Stunning plane video taken inside the eye of Hurricane Ida
– Live video can be streamed via WFAA.
Incredible and terrifying footage of the eye of Hurricane Ida shows the catastrophic storm swirling toward Louisiana on Sunday.
“Stunning video taken from inside the eye of #Ida this morning by the NESDIS Ocean Winds Research team,” the National Hurricane Center posted on Twitter.
The Ocean Winds Research team is part of the U.S. National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service. The team “provide[s] science support for remotely sensed ocean surface wind products” and helps forecasters get real-time data for weather phenomena like hurricanes.
The video shows Ida’s eyewall swirling around the calm center of the intense tropical storm. Circling within the eyewall are raging thunderstorms and high winds, which are expected to blitz heavily populated parts of Louisiana today.
As Ida moved through some of the warmest ocean water in the world in the northern Gulf of Mexico, its top winds grew by 45 mph to 150 mph in five hours. The system made landfall early Sunday afternoon at Port Fourchon on the exact date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier.
Hurricane force winds started to strike Grand Isle on Sunday morning. Before power was lost on the Louisiana barrier island, a beachfront web camera showed the ocean steadily rising as growing waves churned and palm trees whipped.
Rain poured, wind tore at awnings and water began spilling out of Lake Ponchartrain in New Orleans. Officials there said Ida’s swift intensification from a few thunderstorms to massive hurricane over three days left no time to organize a mandatory evacuation of its 390,000 residents.
Officials stressed that the levee and drainage systems protecting New Orleans had been much improved since Katrina. But they cautioned flooding was still possible, with up to 24 inches of rain forecast in some areas.
“Ida will most definitely be stronger than Katrina, and by a pretty big margin,’’ said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. “And, the worst of the storm will pass over New Orleans and Baton Rouge, which got the weaker side of Katrina.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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