9/1 - 4pm - Gustav Weakens, Levees Hold, More Storms to Come

Gustav has weakened to a Category 1 with winds pushing up to 90mph right now. There are mass power outages in the Louisiana/Mississippi area, including New Orleans. That's to be expected with the winds that came through. Here's some great news: the levees are holding in New Orleans. Even though they are being over topped by the storm surge, they are at least not failing and holding most of the water back. There has been some flooding in the Industrial Canal area of New Orleans, but that seems to be an isolated case at this point. The levees are holding in that area, but they're unfinished and water is sloshing over them. Let's hope that the levees hold for the remainder of this storm, especially with the Mississippi River now being affected.

The track from the NHC brings the remains of Gustav into Oklahoma now instead of parking it in Texas. This raises the possibility for some drenching rains here, especially if this meets up with a cold front expected to stall out over us early this weekend.

Now, here's some bad news. We're going to add two names to the family of storms in the Gulf and Atlantic. Hurricane Hanna was upgraded from a tropical storm this morning and Tropical Depression 9, soon to be Tropical Storm Ike, is on it's way. Hanna is going to impact North or South Carolina this weekend and Ike is going to try to aim for the Bahamas as a hurricane by this weekend as well. I'll get maps and models up on those tomorrow after Gustav stops causing such a stir.

8/31 - 8pm - Maybe Gustav Won't Reach a Category 4?

It's good that Gustav has been relatively weak today, with winds at around 115mph. It looks like now that the storm won't go any higher than a Category 3 before landfall because it's simply getting too close to land to get any stronger. The strengthening that most, including myself, thought would happen over the warm Gulf waters never materialized. This is very good news, but this is still a force to be reckoned with.

The projected area for landfall is still the same as when I posted at 3pm, so New Orleans will see some wind, rain, and storm surge out of this. Since this will steer just west of the city, I think the risk of heavy damage has decreased a bit. Tropical storm force winds are expected at landfall, with hurricane force not out of the question. The levees are a different story though, as the storm surge might or might not be enough to run over them. Let's hope they hold.

Hopefully there will be more good news to come, although it can only get so good. We're still talking about a hurricane impacting the Central Louisiana coast, folks. Remember that landfall is slated to occur tomorrow before noon.