Cancun, Nov 8 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Officials have issued a hurricane watch for coastal Louisiana and Mississippi. Whereas Hurricane Ida swept the resort city of Cancun on Sunday, with heavy-duty rains and high velocity winds.

Huge gusts of wind blew away the coastal palm trees and the fishermen pulled their boats to safety and tied them down along Mexico’s Caribbean coast. Tourists, who had no option tried to continue with their vacation, as if something happened, despite the Category 1 storm warning.

“I figure probably in a couple hours we’ll be stuck inside,” said 40-year-old Julie Randolph, who came all the way from Ormand Beach, Florida. She braved the elements, to jog along the near-empty beach. Randolph was trying to be alert and be aware of her surroundings too, “I’m always concerned about storms, but I feel comfortable and safe in my surroundings,” she said. “We would have left if we felt threatened. We still can leave now.”

‘However the Cancun airport was still open, despite the storm and there were no plans to close it either’, according to airport spokesman Eduardo Rivadeneira. Officials said the storm with the highest intensity was likely to hit Cancun around midday. They also advised the residents to stay inside.

“Right now it is very, very calm,” Civil Defense director Ruben Avalos Gutierrez said. “The phenomenon is going to be very close. We will get rain and wind gusts.”

According to reports, ‘Ida had winds of about 90 mph (150 kph). The storm was passing about 60 miles (100 kilometers) offshore from Cancun, and 85 miles (135 kilometers) southwest of Cuba. It was moving northwest at about 12 mph (19 kph) on a projected path that could have it arriving at the U.S. Gulf coast around Tuesday’.

The latest reports reveal that “A hurricane watch has been issued east of the Mississippi/Alabama border to Mexico Beach, Florida.”