How the climate crisis played a role in fueling Hurricane Ida

Hurricane Ida made landfall last weekend near New Orleans as a Category-4 storm, lashing the region with winds of up to 150mph (240kph), heavy rains and several feet of storm surge on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Mercifully, levees held around the Big Easy after being reinforced in the wake of the 2005 storm which decimated neighborhoods and left 1,800 people dead. However the storm still caused massive flooding outside of New Orleans in communities like Houma and LaPlace.

Four deaths were reported in Louisiana and Mississippi, including two people killed when a highway collapsed in torrential rain.