‘Not good’: Cuba, US brace for Hurricane Ida

The hurricane is quickly strengthening and is expected to hit Cuba Friday night and the United States on Sunday.

Hurricane Ida swirled towards a strike on Cuba on Friday as a rapidly intensifying storm that could speed across warm Gulf waters and slam into Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane on Sunday, the United States’ National Hurricane Center warned. “The forecast track has it headed straight towards New Orleans. Not good,” said Jim Kossin, a senior scientist with The Climate Service. Ida became a hurricane Friday bearing down on tobacco-rich western Cuba, where the government issued a hurricane warning for its westernmost provinces and the Isle of Youth. As much as 50cm (20 inches) of rain could fall in places, making deadly flash floods and mudslides possible, forecasters said.