Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 storm that rapidly intensified over the weekend, made landfall in the United States on Sunday, bringing with it chaos, devastation, and a reminder that climate change is going to make life hell for the foreseeable future.
Ida was first spotted on Aug. 23 by the National Hurricane Center as a potential tropical cyclone development. By the time it hit the coast of Louisiana on Sunday, making landfall near Port Fourchon at around 11:55 a.m. local time, it was upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane. As the storm left the Gulf of Mexico, it brought with it sustained winds of up to 150 miles per hour and torrential rain. Ida was strong enough to temporarily reverse the flow of the Mississippi River — the result of massive storm surges that rushed massive amounts of water inland, causing flash floods and knocking loose large barges from shore.
