Situated in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico on September 8, Betsy began to strengthen and accelerate towards the west and then northwest, under the influence of the same ridge of high pressure that had forced it southwestward three days prior. At roughly the same time, hurricane forecast operations were handed over the Weather Bureau Office in New Orleans, Louisiana. During its trek through the gulf, Betsy accelerated to a maximum forward speed of 22 mph (35 km/h), a speed anomalously high for a tropical cyclone traversing the Gulf of Mexico. At 0600 UTC on September 9, the hurricane was estimated to have regained Category 4 intensity, and continued to strengthen as it neared the Central United States Gulf Coast. At 0000 UTC the next day, Betsy reached its primary peak intensity with winds of 140 mph (220 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 942 mbar (hPa; 27.79 inHg) shortly before moving ashore a rural area of Louisiana coastline adjacent to Houma and Grand Isle early on September 10. Once inland, Betsy quickly weakened, and paralleled the Mississippi River before degenerating into a tropical depression by 0600 UTC the following day. Afterwards, it began to track northeastward along the Ohio River before it transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on September 12. The remnant extratropical circulation of Betsy persisted into southern Ohio before dissipating entirely by 0000 UTC on September 13.