Tropical storm Isaac ‘could rival Katrina as CATEGORY TWO hurricane’ as it turns west and heads for New Orleans seven years after disaster
It has been 7 years since Katrina hit New Orleans with a deadly force killing at least 1,836 people and causing a damage of $110 billion.
DailyNews reported that The National Hurricane Center extended a previous warning today along the Louisiana coast, taking in the New Orleans area.
Alabama joined Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana in declaring a state of emergency as the storm approaches.
The latest track of Tropical Storm Isaac puts more than $36 billion in Gulf Coast residential property at risk of flooding from storm surges, with southeastern Louisiana at greatest peril of huge losses, residential data analysis company CoreLogic said on Sunday.
Isaac bore down on the Florida Keys Sunday afternoon, with the latest National Hurricane Center forecasts suggesting a Mississippi landfall Wednesday morning as a Category 2 hurricane.
The NHC said Isaac was due to be at or near category-two hurricane strength soon after its center crosses the Florida Keys late on Sunday.
The latest forecast takes Isaac into the Mississippi coast with maximum sustained winds from 96 to 110 mph over the next few days.
This Wednesday marks the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 which hit the New Orleans area with deadly force.
The NHC said Isaac was expected to intensify to a Category 2 hurricane, with ‘extremely dangerous’ sustained winds of 105 miles per hour (169 kph), as it swept up the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning for the northern Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle on Sunday.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called a state of emergency and officials in St. Charles Parish near New Orleans told its 53,000 residents to leave ahead of the storm. Jindal also said he may skip a speaking engagement later this week at the Republican National Convention in Tampa unless the threat to his state subsides. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has canceled his trip to the convention because of Isaac, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott also gave up his speaking engagement.
