View of Hurricane Ida from aboard the International Space Station

People evacuating ahead of Hurricane Ida clogged roads headed north on Saturday from the US Gulf Coast, with the strengthening storm set to hit New Orleans 16 years to the day after devastating Hurricane Katrina. 

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said Ida would be one of the most powerful storms to hit the state since the 1850s.
In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell warned residents to take Ida with utmost seriousness.
Shelters were being prepared around the region, but Louisiana has been one of the hardest-hit states by the Covid-19 pandemic, and Biden urged anyone heading to a shelter to wear a mask and take precautions.
The National Weather Service is forecasting a "life-threatening storm surge" -- as high as 11 feet near New Orleans and 15 feet around the mouth of the Mississippi River -- when the hurricane makes landfall.
It warned of "catastrophic wind damage" and said Ida could spawn tornadoes.
Category Four is the second-highest on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, with a minimum wind strength of 130 miles per hour. 
Louisiana has declared a state of emergency in preparation for the storm.
The emergency declaration, approved by Biden, will expedite federal storm assistance to the southern state.
The hurricane made landfall late Friday in western Cuba as a Category 1 storm, packing winds near 80 miles per hour but causing mostly minor damage.