'Powerful and dangerous' Hurricane Ida on verge of landfall in Louisiana - Reuters

• Ida could be worst direct hit in 170 years, governor says
• Storm surge, flooding rains to reach inland communities

NEW ORLEANS, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Hurricane Ida was on the verge of making landfall in the United States on Sunday as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm that could plunge much of the Louisiana shoreline under water as the state grapples with a COVID-19 surge already taxing hospitals.

Ida gathered more strength overnight, faster than meteorologists had predicted only a day ago. It is the toughest test yet for the hundreds of miles of new levees built around New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall 16 years ago to the day, inundating historically Black neighborhoods and killing more than 1,800 people.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said that the storm, due to make landfall by Sunday afternoon, could be the state's worst direct hit by a hurricane since the 1850s.

The state is also dealing with the nation's third-highest rate of new COVID-19 infections, with about 3,400 new cases reported on Friday alone. Hospitals were treating some 2,450 COVID-19 patients, Edwards said, with those in many of the state's parishes already nearing capacity.

By early Sunday, Ida was a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. At 11 a.m. CDT (1600 GMT) it was located about 60 miles (95 km) west-southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River, and some 85 miles (135 km) south of New Orleans, carrying top sustained winds of 150 miles per hour (240 km per hour).

Rain gusted through New Orleans on Sunday morning, where retired 68-year-old Robert Ruffin had evacuated with his family to a downtown hotel from their home in the city's east.

"I thought it was safer," he said. "It’s double trouble this time because of COVID."

IDA's landfall was only a few hours away, according to the NHC, which warned of life-threatening storm surges, potentially catastrophic wind damage and flooding rainfall.

"We're as prepared as we can be, but we're worried about those levees," said Kirk Lepine, president of Plaquemines Parish on the state's Gulf Coast.

Plaquemines is one of the most vulnerable parishes, where 23,000 people live along the Mississippi delta stretching into the Gulf. Lepine feared levees along Highway 23 were not up to task.

"Water could go over top," he said. "That's our one road in and out."

A man lifts a sheet of plywood at a Home Depot store in preparation for Hurricane Ida, in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. August 28, 2021. REUTERS/Marco Bello

Edwards told CNN on Sunday that he believed the state's levees would be able to withstand the storm surge, though he expressed some doubt about parishes, like Plaquemines, in the south.

"Where we’re less confident is further south where you have other protection systems that are not built to that same standard," he said. "That's where we are most concerned about the impact of storm surge."

He said on Saturday there were no plans to evacuate patients from hospitals, and that state officials had been speaking with hospitals to ensure their generators were working and that they had more water on hand than normal.

Officials ordered widespread evacuations of low-lying and coastal areas, jamming highways and leading some gasoline stations to run dry as residents and vacationers fled.

"This is a powerful and dangerous storm. It is moving faster than we had thought it would be, so we have a little less time to prepare," said Dr. Joseph Kanter, Louisiana's chief medical official. "There is a lot of COVID out there, there are a lot of risks out there."

POWER OUTAGES EXPECTED

Utilities were bringing in extra crews and equipment to deal with expected power losses. U.S. President Joe Biden said he has coordinated with electric utilities and 500 federal emergency response workers were in Texas and Louisiana to respond to the storm. read more

U.S. energy companies reduced offshore oil production by 91% and gasoline refiners cut operations at Louisiana plants in the path of the storm. Regional fuel prices rose in anticipation of production losses and on increased demand due to evacuations. read more

Coastal and inland oil refineries also began to cut production due to the storm. Phillips 66 shut its Alliance plant on the coast in Belle Chasse, while Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) cut production at its Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery on Saturday. read more

Jean Paul Bourg, 39, was planning to ride out the storm in Morgan City, about 70 miles (112 km) west of New Orleans. His wife's brother was recently released from the hospital after contracting COVID-19 and secured a generator to ensure access to oxygen if needed.

"You can't necessarily pile in with family members during COVID," Bourg said, after trimming trees and putting up plywood on his house. "More people than you'd think are sticking around."

Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in New Orleans, Jessica Resnick-Ault and Jonathan Allen in New York, Erwin Seba in Houston, Rich McKay in Atlanta, and Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Writing by Jessica Resnick-Ault and Jonathan Allen Editing by Caroline Stauffer, Leslie Adler, Frances Kerry and Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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