Mexico, Nov 9 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The Hurricane Ida is heading towards the US Gulf Coast but the silver lining is that it is weakening. It is expected to come ashore in the next 24 hours.

‘Ida remained a Category 1 hurricane, with top winds at 80 mph (130 kph)’, the National Hurricane Center said in its 7 a.m. ET update.

The storm is expected to continue to weaken, but it is expected to gain in velocity, as it approaches the Gulf Coast on Monday night.

A 200-mile stretch from Pascagoula, Mississippi, eastward to near Apalachicola, Florida is under a hurricane warning. Coastal communities between Grand Isle, Louisiana, and Pascagoula are under a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch. A hurricane watch implies that hurricane-like and its favorable conditions are possible within the specified watch area, and that too within the time span of 36 hours. Adequate safety measures and other preparations to protect life and property should be made in the hurricane watch as soon as possible, so that there is minimal or no damage to life and property at all.

The hurricane center also warned of “large and destructive waves” caused by the storm, as it heads northwest near 16 mph (26 kph).

“A dangerous storm surge will raise water levels by as much as 4 to 6 feet above ground level along the coast near and to the east of where the center makes landfall,” the center said.