People in a stretch of the Gulf Coast from near New Orleans all the way to the Florida Panhandle should be finishing off the last of their Halloween candy now. Instead they’re preparing for a rare late-season hurricane.
Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast won’t be spared; the storm is indirectly to blame for the strong winds tormenting commuters this morning and which expected to persist to the afternoon.
Ida, which got all the way to a Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, continues to weaken as it moves through colder water in the central Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said in a 7 a.m. intermediate advisory.
Hurricane warnings remain up from Pascagoula, Miss., to Indian Pass, near Apalachicola. A tropical storm warning is in place from Indian Pass east to Aucilla River, in Florida’s “Big Bend” area.
At 7 a.m. the storm was about 330 miles south-southwest of Pensacola. It was moving rapidly, at near 16 mph, to the north-northwest and was expected to turn to the north.
Top sustained winds are down to 80 mph, making Ida still a Category 1 hurricane, and it still could be when it makes landfall ovenright.
The next Ida advisory is set for 10 a.m.
