The projected path of Hurricane Gustav suggests a possible landfall near New Orleans. With Tropical Depression Fay still dumping rain on the Southeast United States, residents are turning their eyes toward Hurricane Gustav. Although Gustav is just passing by Haiti, early projections for its path show a likely landfall somewhere along the US coast in the Caribbean Gulf, according to the Weather Channel. Projections are imprecise this far ahead and the range of likely paths for Hurricane Gustav run from Texas to Florida with higher likelihood in the area midway between the two gulf states.
New Orleans Landfall for Hurricane Gustav?
Would New Orleans be ready for a hurricane to make landfall there now? New Orleans is still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. During that terrible hurricane, New Orleans became a scene of complete chaos as the city's infrastructure and emergency services failed utterly. Massive flooding destroyed homes and took lives when the category 3 hurricane made landfall near the city.
Hurricane Gustav Strengthening
Hurricane Gustav continued to grow stronger on Tuesday with sustained winds of 90 miles per hour. While this makes Hurricane Gustav only a category 1 hurricane, forecasters at the Weather Channel caution that if Hurricane Gustav avoids spending much time over Cuba and instead stays over the open water, it could be a severe hurricane. The term severe hurricane is reserved for Category 3 and higher storms.
Hurricane Gustav is smaller in the area it covers than Hurricane Fay so it should affect a smaller territory once it does make landfall. However, if you happen to be one of the communities directly in its path, this certainly does not make it any less dangerous. People along the gulf coast should keep an eye out for the path of Hurricane Gustav over the coming days as the ability to narrow its likely path grows stronger. At this point, Hurricane Gustav is still about 6-7 days from reaching the US gulf coast. With the area still soaked from Tropical Storm Fay, flooding is certainly going to be a concern. Hurricane models provide a cone shaped projection based on the likelihood that a storm will follow any particular track.
Next Few Days will Decide
While it's too early to pinpoint the place where Hurricane Gustav will make landfall, the area around New Orleans is certainly a possibility. Meanwhile there is still a strong possibility that Hurricane Gustav will spend a good portion of the next few days over land in Cuba. While that might be bad for Cuba, it is only a Category 1 hurricane at this point and will certainly be weakened without the warm ocean waters to maintain its energy if that happens.
Landfall would coincide with the Republican National Convention, and with John McCain tied up in the festivities, the MSM is certain to be showing hour after hour of Illinois senator Barack Obama helping out the beleaguered citizens of New Orleans while deriding McCain for being too busy hanging out with his rich, white friends to bother with NOLA.
Should look something like this:
