By AccuWeather staff writer
Published Oct. 28, 2020 6:38 PM
Hurricane Zeta came racing ashore at peak intensity late Wednesday afternoon, slamming Louisiana and delivering a direct hit to New Orleans after rapidly strengthening during its journey across the Gulf of Mexico.
It took until the 27th named storm of the season, four of which had previously struck the Bayou State, for a storm to directly impact New Orleans, the state's largest city. The fast-moving Zeta made landfall around 4 p.m. CDT Wednesday near Cocodrie, Louisiana, then sliced through the southeastern portion of Louisiana, leaving behind a flooded mess in its wake.
Along with being the fifth named storm of the year to make landfall in Louisiana, a record for one season, beating out 2002, Zeta also became the 11th named storm of the season to make landfall in the United States, another new record. The previous record was held by the 1916 season.
At least one fatality has been reported in the U.S. in connection with Zeta after a person was electrocuted by downed power lines in New Orleans, according to New Orleans EMS. People across the region are being told to remain indoors even though weather conditions have improved. Roadways across the region remain littered with downed trees and power lines, making driving extremely dangerous.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
But before Louisiana officials and residents can get to rewriting their record books, they'll have a mess on their hands to clean up. Zeta was at its strongest as it reached the coastline as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. This was just 1 mph shy of being a Category 3 storm, which is the benchmark for being considered a major hurricane.
Along with the strong winds, storm surge and wind-whipped rain left many coastal and low-lying areas of southeastern Louisiana underwater. AccuWeather National News Reporter Jonathan Petramala was near Grand Isle, Louisiana, just a few miles away from where Zeta made landfall, and witnessed a boat that was over Highway 1 near the coast due to the storm surge.
"[I] watched this home's roof explode off in the inner eyewall of Hurricane Zeta," Petramala said. Although the roof was gone, the home was above the storm surge.
A house near Grand Isle, Louisiana, had its roof completely blown off during the height of Zeta. (AccuWeather/Jonathan Petramala)
Gov. John Bel Edwards' pen was used probably more than he'd like this year after signing so many state of emergency declarations.
On Tuesday, a mandatory evacuation order was issued for the area of Grand Isle. The barrier island town prepared itself for the storm by fortifying with tons of rocks and hundreds of sandbags, according to Fox 8. A new levee was also recently built on the bayside just in time but was was breached during the height of the storm, according to local officials.
Power outages across the region are spiking as Zeta races inland, approaching 1 million across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, according to PowerOutage.us. Farther west, more than 350,000 are still in the dark across Texas and Oklahoma following a multi-day ice storm.
Even before its arrival, the impacts of Zeta were felt as outer bands from the system began drenching portions of the state shortly before noon on Wednesday, leading to canceled flights at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
Conditions began to deteriorate along the Louisiana coast on Wednesday morning as the northern part of the hurricane arrived.
“Grand Isle is a place that has been evacuated six times so far this season, so you had mandatory as well as voluntary evacuations, this is the seventh time, and it appears that the seventh time is the unlucky number,” Petramala said.
The beachfront levee of Grand Isle has taken a beating this busy hurricane season. (AccuWeather/Brandon Clement)
Petramala added that the beachfront, which serves as a levee to protect against storm surge, has been so continuously beaten down this busy season that officials haven’t had time to make necessary repairs from the beach erosion and damage previously sustained.
“When I got into New Orleans [on Tuesday], I didn’t notice much in the way of preparations, it seemed like people have had some fatigue,” Petramala said. “As much as officials try to encourage folks to not have that hurricane fatigue, you can imagine how difficult that is after the seventh time they’ve been in the cone of uncertainty.”
Earlier in the week, Gov. Edwards declared a state of emergency and warned residents to prepare for another strike.
"The good thing and the bad thing is we've had a lot of practice this year," he said.
A man walks his dogs past fallen trees after Hurricane Zeta's landfall in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, early Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. Zeta is leaving Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on a path that could hit New Orleans Wednesday night. (AP Photo/Tomas Stargardter)
The practice began in June with Tropical Storm Cristobal before Tropical Storm Marco and Hurricane Laura both arrived in the final week of August. Before the people of Cameron Parish could finish cleaning the mess left by Laura, the strongest hurricane of 2020 thus far, Hurricane Delta struck the same area in early October.
Prior to reaching the U.S., Zeta made landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico while at Category 1 strength shortly after 11 p.m. CDT Monday. The storm unleashed heavy storm surge, heavy rain and strong winds through Monday night, which led to various amounts of damage in places like Cozumel.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
No comments:
Post a Comment