Hurricane Ida has made landfall in Louisiana as a strong Category 4 storm, with wind speeds of up to 145 mph. 🌀🌀🌀
Ida is one of the strongest hurricanes to make landfall in Louisiana. It’s actually stronger than Hurricane Katrina, which battered the state in 2005. It is expected to rapidly weaken over the next day or two. It will dissipate while dumping rain over the American Southeast.
The National Weather Service has characterized the situation as “extremely dangerous“, indicating that the storm will cause “catastrophic storm surge, extreme winds, and flash flooding.” President Biden echoed warnings about the storm, pledging the support of federal agencies and resources.
Naturally, in the somewhat cynical nature of the markets, people are worried about what a major hurricane will do to stocks. There’s some research that suggests the answer is: not much… so stop worrying about that. 😌
However, Ida has curtailed production of oil in the Gulf. Offshore facilities and refineries will have to temporarily cut production. The Gulf oilfields provide 17% of the nation’s oil. Might not be a bad idea to go fill up your car, just to be safe. We’ll get EIA crude inventories this week. 🛢️