Hurricane Gustav hitting Louisiana coast
Looks like Gustav’s bands are striking New Orleans, now. It is only a tiny bit smaller than Hurricane Katrina and fortunately, hasn’t reached Category 4 status. But Katrina was Category 3 when it reached land, too.. A storm surge of 8′ to 14′ is anticipated and there’s uncertainty whether the levees will be breached again.
It seems to be tracking to the northwest so the eye may make landfall somewhere west of New Orleans within the next 4 to 6 hours. That may be good news for New Orleans and they now think the levees may hold beyond some minor leaks and topping but much of western Louisiana will be impacted. Within two days, Texas could be getting its share of rain and tornadoes, too. Nearly 2 million people have been evacuated from their Louisiana homes including 290,000 of New Orleans’ 300,000 residents.
Update 6:15 New Orleans time: Hurricane hunters report the eyewall has broken open due to shear winds, which is also a hopeful sign. But rains, the surge and tornadoes will continue to be concerns in the hurricane’s path for the next 1 to 2 days.
NOLA.com is the place to go for updates. Craig of J’Anitas restaurant, will be intermittently blogging from New Orleans, though power outages are already occurring which could disrupt that. Here’s some Gustavbloggers, too.
Inland, blogger Ara Rubyan will be putting up videos and reports inland, from Baton Rouge.
See Infrared satellite, in motion.
In an hour or two, the Visible satellite in motion should see dawn.
It’s estimated Gustav will destroy 75,000 structures. That’s disastrous, considering that tens of thousands of trailers are still in use from the devastation of 3 years ago.
WHY DO 65,000 NEW ORLEANS HOMES REMAIN DAMAGED AND UNINHABITABLE AFTER SO MUCH TIME? Because they’re poor and many are black and it’s more important for our president to rebuild Iraq, which got hit by Hurricane Bush.
Unlike his joking attitude in this Katrina video, John McCain is taking this one seriously. The Bushes and Dick Cheney won’t be kicking off the RNC tonight. It will be all business instead of cheering delegates.
I have to add that this agnostic is duly impressed by the message God and Mother Nature have teamed up to send the President and Vice-Omnipotent of the US: STFU!
There’s your sign.
September 1st, 2008 at 8:22 am
[…] And just as occurred during Katrina, I think NOLA.com is proving the best source of info. As well as several blogs noted here. . […]