NEW ORLEANS \u2014 Louisiana residents braced or fled Saturday as the biggest hurricane since Katrina barreled through the Gulf of Mexico toward the low-lying \u2026<\/b>
\nNEW ORLEANS \u2014 Louisiana residents braced or fled Saturday as the biggest hurricane since Katrina barreled through the Gulf of Mexico toward the low-lying coast, with its eye tracking closer to the city. At 4 p.m., Hurricane Ida was swirling over warm waters in the Gulf some 300 miles southeast of Houma. It stood as a Category 2 storm with winds up to 105 mph, but it will strengthen to a Category 4 before it makes landfall Sunday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. The storm\u2019s speed has caused the landfall timetable to be advanced repeatedly in the last 24 hours. Gov. John Bel Edwards addressed the state around 2 p.m. Saturday, urging residents to evacuate quickly if they could or hunker down to ride out what could prove a hellish storm. \u201cYour window of time is closing,\u201d Mr. Edwards said. \u201cIt\u2019s rapidly closing. By the time you go to bed tonight, you need to be where you intend to ride out this storm and you need to be as prepared as you can be.\u201d Sunday also marks the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, heightening tension and a sense of foreboding among many residents. Residents outside the levee system faced a mandatory evacuation that took effect Friday, and traffic on Interstate 10, which threads northeast and northwest out of New Orleans, was snarled badly. \u201cThere\u2019s still time so get out while you can,\u201d Plaquemines Parish President Kirk Kepine said at a 3 p.m. local time press conference Saturday. \u201cThe ferries are going to be suspended tomorrow because of high winds and the gates are closing.\u201d Plaquemines is one of the handful or parishes that fan out below New Orleans toward the Gulf, all of which were devastated by Katrina\u2019s storm surge and rain \u2014 two factors that are in play again with Ida. Southeastern Louisiana is already sodden with rain from storms unrelated to Ida, and the hurricane could bring up to 20 inches of rain compounding spot-flooding issues, officials said. The airplanes used to fly over hurricanes and get a clearer picture of the storm were not in the area as of 4 p.m., according to local reports. Storm trackers are expected to get above Ida in the next couple of hours, however, and provide more detail on the hurricane\u2019s organization and power. Many area stores began to close Saturday afternoon and scores of gas stations in the city and the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain were empty, the tangled traffic that roiled around them since Friday morning replaced by pump handles covered in yellow gloves. Mr. Edwards declared a state of emergency late Thursday, and in his Saturday remarks said close to 5,000 National Guard were in Louisiana to assist in disaster assistance. He and other officials warned power outages could take two weeks or more to repair. Disaster response teams with FEMA and private charitable organizations were encamped at various locations north of Baton Rouge and toward Hattiesburg, Ms., ready to come in to what is expected to be a storm-stricken area Monday. Mr. Edwards said dozens of busses have been stationed at spots between Lafayette and New Orleans, but he urged residents to evacuate to spots north or west of the I-10 corridor that runs from the capital to the Texas border. For now, the buses have been helping evacuate nursing homes and other vulnerable populations, Mr. Edwards said, leaving many residents with memories of dozens who perished in hospitals and nursing homes Katrina left without power in the city and St. Bernard Parish. The timetable offered Louisianians eerie reflections of Katrina and Hurricane Rita, another monster Category 5 storm that hit the Bayou State near the Texas border just days after Katrina. Despite widespread belief Katrina was a natural disaster for New Orleans, the storm was a Category 3 that hit the city. The city\u2019s nightmare began after the storm when the levees broke, thus making the flooding of much of New Orleans a man-made disaster. More than 1,000 people are believed to have died in the storm or drowned. Katrina did hit the adjoining Mississippi Gulf Coast as a Category 5, packing such destruction the area looked like a German city in 1945 after repeated bombing raids. New Orleans has been spared a big storm hit since Katrina, meaning the levee system the U.S. Corps of Engineers is now superior to what existed in 2005 has never been tested, as Mr. Edwards noted. \u201cI know that tomorrow for many of you is a very difficult anniversary,\u201d Mr. Edwards said. \u201cI\u2019m also aware that it\u2019s very painful to think about another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida making landfall on that anniversary. But we\u2019re not the same state we were 16 years ago. \u201cHaving said all that, this system is going to be tested,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt. The people of Louisiana are going to be tested.\u201d<\/p>\n