It’s looking like still-not-a-hurricane-yet Isaac may largely spare the GOP Convention (at least compared to earlier doomsday predictions), but the storm has a new target: New Orleans and a large chunk of the rest of the Gulf Coast.
The latest from the National Weather Service:
Tropical Storm Isaac is continuing to move west-northwestward over the eastern Gulf of Mexico at about 14 mph. Maximum sustained winds are near 65 mph. Isaac is currently about 300 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River and is expected to become a hurricane before reaching the northern Gulf Coast late Tuesday. A storm surge of 6-12 feet is expected for southeast La., Miss., and Ala.
CNN explains that the storm is following an “eerily similar” path to the one Hurricane Katrina took seven years ago, almost to the day:
There are some obvious differences—Isaac is much weaker than Katrina—but the storm nonetheless will require Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi to execute emergency management plans that were partly shaped by Katrina. Thousands in the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Monday were told to evacuate their Gulf Coast homes.
