Hurricane Isaac strengthened Tuesday afternoon as it swirled over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, pointed toward the fragile lowlands of southern Louisiana and the ever-vulnerable city of New Orleans.
In a bulletin issued at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, the National Hurricane Center said Isaac, upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane earlier in the day, was “getting better organized” as its maximum sustained winds increased to near 80 mph. It said that further “slight strengthening” is possible before Isaac makes its predicted landfall Tuesday evening.
Isaac, once an unorganized and fast-moving storm, has slowed considerably and was plodding northwest at 8 mph by late Tuesday afternoon. Once it hits the coast, such a slow speed would be a cause for concern, because storms that travel at a leisurely pace tend to linger over flood-prone neighborhoods and dump large amounts of rain.
Forecasters are predicting 7 to 14 inches of rain once Isaac reaches land. Total rainfall could reach 20 inches in some isolated areas.
Sizable storm surges and massive amounts of rain would present the toughest test yet for New Orleans’s rebuilt levees, which are designed to endure all but the most catastrophic storms. The storm is also likely to test the federal government’s ability to respond to a natural disaster in the region seven years after the Bush administration fumbled the task in the wake of Katrina.
In a bulletin issued at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, the National Hurricane Center said Isaac, upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane earlier in the day, was “getting better organized” as its maximum sustained winds increased to near 80 mph. It said that further “slight strengthening” is possible before Isaac makes its predicted landfall Tuesday evening.
Isaac, once an unorganized and fast-moving storm, has slowed considerably and was plodding northwest at 8 mph by late Tuesday afternoon. Once it hits the coast, such a slow speed would be a cause for concern, because storms that travel at a leisurely pace tend to linger over flood-prone neighborhoods and dump large amounts of rain.
Forecasters are predicting 7 to 14 inches of rain once Isaac reaches land. Total rainfall could reach 20 inches in some isolated areas.
Sizable storm surges and massive amounts of rain would present the toughest test yet for New Orleans’s rebuilt levees, which are designed to endure all but the most catastrophic storms. The storm is also likely to test the federal government’s ability to respond to a natural disaster in the region seven years after the Bush administration fumbled the task in the wake of Katrina.
