Hurricane Zeta Hits the Gulf Coast as a Category 2 Storm

One of the harshest hurricane seasons in history continued on Thursday as Hurricane Zeta barreled through the Gulf Coast to the mid-Atlantic overnight on Wednesday as a Category 2 storm, bringing winds of 60 mph to the area.

Zeta weakened as it moved over the Gulf Coast and, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), was about 65 miles west-northwest of Atlanta, Ga. and about 80 miles east-northeast of Birmingham, Ala. at 5 a.m. EST on Thursday.

According to the NHC, Zeta is now forecasted to run northeast at about 40 mph, picking up speed as it continues its track across portions of the southeastern U.S. on Thursday morning and then across the Mid-Atlantic states on Thursday afternoon before hitting the western Atlantic Thursday night.

According to PowerOutage.us, at least 1.8 million people were without power in states that were impacted by Zeta including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Residents of New Orleans were told to stay home on Thursday by Mayor LaToya Cantrell as the city continues to deal with downed power lines and officials wait for sunlight to assess the full extent of Zeta’s impact.

With Zeta’s arrival, 2020 has set another yet another record. Zeta became the fifth named storm to his Louisiana in 2020, a record for a single year for the state. It also became the 27^th named storm overall for the 2020 season, one away from the record of 28 set in 2005.

Airline changes
The storm caused headaches for a number of travelers on Thursday. Almost 50% of the flights out of New Orleans International on Wednesday according to FlightAware and those cancellations and delays continued through Thursday.

Airlines responded by issuing weather advisories and waivers for some coastal airports.

American Airlines issued a waiver for travel through Thursday for Alexandria (AEX), Baton Rouge (BTR), Destin/Fort Walton Beach (VPS), Gulfport (GPT), Lafayette (LFT), Mobile (MOB), New Orleans (MSY), Panama City (ECP), and Pensacola (PNS). The ticket has to be rebooked for travel by Nov. 1.

Delta Air Lines issued its own waiver for travel through Thursday at Alexandria (AEX), Baton Rouge (BTR), Fort Walton Beach (VPS), Gulfport (GPT), Lafayette (LFT), Mobile (MOB), New Orleans (MSY), Panama City (ECP), and Pensacola (PNS). Delta’s tickets also have to be rebooked by Nov. 1.

JetBlue also announced that it was waiving change/cancel fees and fare differences for travel through Thursday at New Orleans (MSY). Travel was to be rebooked for flights through Nov. 1.

Mexico recovers
While a lot of the Quintana Roo area of Mexico was locked down on Tuesday in anticipation of Zeta’s arrival, the area did not suffer extreme damage according to Governor Carlos Joaquín.

Joaquín said on Wednesday that power had been restored to almost 80% of the 253,000 people who suffered outages during the storm’s passing.

“Thank you from Quintana Roo!” Joaquín wrote in a message on social media on Tuesday night. “Once again with solidarity and unity, no incidents were reported for Hurricane Zeta. Quintana Roo is standing up!”

Advisors speaking to TMR on Tuesday who were at Cancun resorts as Zeta made impact also said that while preparations were taken to protect guests, most resorts didn’t take damage and power remained out throughout the night.

Melissa Lisell, a travel advisor at Lisell Travel, was Cancun, staying at the Hyatt Zilara Cancun when Zeta hit. 

“It was a long night, but everything seems okay,” she told TMR on Tuesday morning. The Hyatt, where she was staying, remained open and everyone was allowed to sleep in their rooms with WiFi and power on throughout the night, though people were prevented from going in and out of the resort starting at 2 pm.