(ETH) – Storm surge and strong winds from Hurricane Ida stopped the flow of the Mississippi River near New Orleans on Sunday and actually caused it to reverse — something the US Geological Survey says is “extremely uncommon.”
Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, early Sunday afternoon as an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. The hurricane arrived on the 16th anniversary of the historically devastating Hurricane Katrina.
“I remember, offhand, that there was some flow reversal of the Mississippi River during Hurricane Katrina, but it is extremely uncommon,” Scott Perrien, a supervising hydrologist with the USGS Lower Mississippi Gulf Water Science Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told CNN.
USGS supervising hydrologist Scott Perrien told CNN that the reversal is “extremely uncommon.” “I remember, offhand, that there was some flow reversal of the Mississippi River during Hurricane Katrina, but it is extremely uncommon,” he said. NewsNation reported that according to Perrien, the river level rose about seven feet at USGS gauge in Belle Chasse because of storm surge.
In a Sunday evening advisory, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Ida was moving northwest at 10 miles per hour. Rainfall amounts were expected to be between 10 to 18 inches with isolated maximum levels possibly reaching 24 inches of rain across southeast Louisiana into southern Mississippi, according to the NHC.
