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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
New Orleans residents taking no chances
Corey Perrine / The Associated Press Andre Beaudette braves the surf as he tries to make it out farther into the ocean in wavy Naples, Fla. (CP)
NEW ORLEANS -- The centre of tropical storm Isaac's projected path took it directly toward New Orleans for a projected landfall as early as tonight, nearly seven years to the day after hurricane Katrina devastated the city.
Forecasters on Monday said Isaac will intensify into a Category 1 hurricane late Monday or today -- far less powerful than Katrina in 2005. Still, residents shuddered and U.S. President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, making federal funding available for emergency activities related to the storm.
Isaac, which left 24 dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic over the weekend, has shifted course from Tampa, where the Republican National Convention pushed back its start to today in case the storm passed closer to the gulfside city.
Hurricane warnings extended across some 530 kilometres Monday, from Louisiana to western Florida. The National Hurricane Center said Isaac was expected to have top winds of around 153 km/h when it hits land. Katrina's winds reached a high of more than 252 km/h when it hit on Aug. 29, 2005.
The size of the warning area and the storm's wide bands of rain and wind prompted emergency declarations in Mississippi, Florida and Alabama as well. Evacuations were ordered for some low-lying areas, and hurricane-tested residents were boarding up homes and stocking up on food and water.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said the updated flood defences around New Orleans are equipped to handle storms stronger than Isaac. Levee failures led to the catastrophic flooding in the area after Katrina, which killed 1,800.
In New Orleans, officials had no plans to order evacuations and instead told residents to hunker down and make do with the supplies they had.
"It's going to be all right," said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.
At 5 p.m. Monday, the National Hurricane Center reported Isaac's top sustained winds had reached 113 km/h. A tropical system becomes a Category 1 hurricane once winds reach 119 km/h. The storm's centre was located about 415 km southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and was moving northwest at 19 km/h. Storm surge was considered a major threat.
Not everyone was waiting to see what happened. Shawanda Harris lost everything she owned when her New Orleans apartment was flooded during Katrina. On Monday, her neighbourhood was packing up and leaving. She planned to caravan out of the city with relatives.
"People ain't taking chances now," she said.
If the storm hits during high tide, it could push floodwaters as deep as four meters on shore in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and up to 1.8 metres in the Florida Panhandle.
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 28, 2012 A9
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