(very) cautious hope

[katallison]

My Weather Underground guy, Dr. Jeff Masters, has a somewhat less dire update on latest developments:
"Katrina is due south of the Mississippi-Louisiana border, and moving northward at 15 mph. On this course, the western edge of the eyewall will pass some 20 miles to the east of New Orleans, sparing that city a catastrophic hit. As the eye passes east of the city later this morning, north winds of about 100 mph will push waters from Lake Pontchartrain up to the top of the levee protecting the city, and possibly breach the levee and flood the city. This flooding is will not cause the kind of catastrophe that a direct hit by the right (east) eyewall would have, with its 140 mph winds and 15-20 foot storm surge. New Orleans will not suffer large loss of life from Katrina. ... Katrina is not hitting at maximum intensity and is sparing New Orleans a direct hit, and although the damage will be incredible, it could have been much, much worse."

This is, of course, very bad news for Biloxi and Gulfport, but I'm hanging on to that "New Orleans will not suffer large loss of life" bit, and hoping to hell he's right. This is going to be horrible no matter how it shakes out, but I'd been fearing tens of thousands dead, and if we can avoid that....

Comments

[luminosity]

Totally. I agree. It's still horrible, but not as horrible as it could be, thank God. It seems to be moving into Camille's route. When Camille hit, the eye of the storm went straight up Nicholson Avenue in Waveland (where I lived at the time, where my Daddy was head of Civil Defense). There's no good here. Only less *bad*.

So far, the local news is all over the pumps not working and the roof of the Superdome being damaged. But gosh.