Hurricane Ida makes land on coast of Louisiana in echoes of Katrina

A news crew reports on the edge of Lake Pontchartrain ahead of approaching Hurricane Ida in New Orleans (Gerald Herbert/AP)

Hurricane Ida blasted ashore along the Louisiana coast, with the eye of one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US arriving near the barrier island of Grand Isle.

The powerful Category 4 storm made landfall on the same date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier, about 40 miles west of where Category 3 Katrina first struck land.