Within the next several hours, Hurricane Gustav will make landfall in Louisiana:
(CNN) — Hurricane Gustav began to lash the southern Louisiana coastline early Monday as it moved closer to an expected midday landfall, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.
As the storm closed in, power went out around 6 a.m. in the western part of downtown New Orleans, and lights also went out in the French Quarter at about 10 minutes later.
CNN’s Ali Velshi was hunkered down in a house on Grand Isle, Louisiana, south of New Orleans, where only a handful of people remained.
When high winds first kicked up about 3:15 a.m. (4:15 a.m. ET) Monday, the barrier island’s electric power went out, Velshi said. A storm surge of at least 14 feet is expected there, he said.
“The levee on the beach seems to be holding up,” said Grand Isle Fire Captain Deacon Guidry. “The water is just starting to rise from the bay side.”
Guidry completed an inspection tour of the island just before dawn. He said that he saw sheet metal from roofs on the road and power lines down, even before Gustav’s powerful winds had reached the island.
Guidry, who is staying with others from the island in a reinforced house, said the flooding pattern is similar to that of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with the storm surge washing over from the backside of the island. At 5:30 a.m. CT, floodwaters surrounded the house, cutting off all exits from the island.
Forecasters warned Monday morning Gustav could stall over Louisiana and northeast Texas for several days, which would “exacerbate the threat of heavy rains and inland flooding.”
With hurricane-force winds extending 70 miles (113 kilometers) from the center, the islands and shoreline were already feeling the reach of Gustav’s fury.
Sustained winds of 91 mph (146 kph) and gusts of 117 mph (188 kph) were measured in Southwest Pass, Louisiana, around 4 a.m., the hurricane center said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed flood gates on the Harvey Canal on the west bank of the Mississippi River on Monday. The step, not unexpected, is the first significant measure to prevent flooding of parts of Jefferson Parish that did not flood during Katrina.
Property damage from Gustav could total $8 billion, just 25 percent of Sunday’s estimate, according to a federally supported computer projection issued Monday morning. Sunday’s estimate of $32.8 billion in property damage was based on winds of 126 mph.
So, it appears that Gustav will not be the killer storm that some feared, but that doesn’t mean it won’t still be a problem:
A leading researcher said the hurricane probably would test New Orleans’ western levees, which, unlike levees in other parts of the city, didn’t receive the brunt of Katrina’s force in 2005. The western levees are low in some sections, he said.
“From the west bank of New Orleans all the way across to Morgan City … we’re going to see communities potentially go under water from levee overtopping and potential breaching,” said Louisiana State University professor Ivor van Heerden, who warned long before Katrina that a major hurricane would be catastrophic for New Orleans. Video Watch residents leaving ยป
Hurricane-force winds could hit Louisiana’s southern coast by sunrise Monday, and the storm’s center could hit southwest of New Orleans by early Monday afternoon, CNN meteorologists said.
Storm surges of 10 to 14 feet above normal tides are expected near and to the east of Gustav’s center, forecasters said. Rain accumulations of 6 to 12 inches are possible over parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, with isolated amounts of up to 20 inches, through Wednesday morning, according to forecasters.
So, while New Orleans may have dodged a bullet thanks to a weakening storm, things could still get pretty bad.
