The final word on Hurricane Ida is in from the National Hurricane Center… it was not a category five at landfall. Despite some anecdotal claims from folks in coastal Southeast Louisiana, the system was a strong category four with 150 mile per hour winds at landfall.
Those winds are tied with Hurricane Laura, and a system from the 1850s as the highest sustained hurricane winds ever recorded at landfall in Louisiana west of the mouth of the Mississippi.
The system produced an enormous amount of rainfall, resulting directly in 55 deaths in incidents ranging from Louisiana up to the Northeast. An additional 32 deaths were indirectly linked to the system. Four direct and 26 indirect deaths in Louisiana were attributed to Ida.
The highest level recorded was Ponchatoula, where they were hit with 15 inches of rainfall.
35 tornadoes were connected to Ida, two of which were in Louisiana.
$75 billion in damages were linked to Ida across the whole of the US, $55 billion of which was in Louisiana.
