The warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico are helping Tropical Storm Isaac gain strength, as it churns toward Louisiana. The storm is moving slowly and its latest tracking by meteorologists have it making landfall sometime early Wednesday possibly in New Orleans. Only seven years ago, almost to the date, Hurricane Katrina blasted the city of New Orleans with high winds and flooding rains that left behind destruction that took years to fix.
Making authorities extra worried is the storm has the potential to dump huge amounts of rain on already saturated ground. The summer has been very rainy and wet in the region and the ground will not be able to hold the rains that are on the way. This not only could cause huge widespread flooding, but also trees and electrical posts will topple over much easier causing dangerous situations and hundreds of thousands could lose power.
The storm could also damage the cotton and corn crops with its heavy rains and fierce winds. The potential storm surge could help already high rivers to overflow their banks causing even more damage. Further north and more inland, the storm might be a welcome sight to farmers who have gone through widespread drought this summer with huge losses in crops. Another benefit could be that the Mississippi River is replenished. This summer the river has been so low that barge traffic has been stopped on several occasions so engineers could have the river dragged to make it deeper.
At the current time, forecasters say Isaac could turn into a hurricane of category 2 strength before making landfall Wednesday. Winds will then be around 100 mph. Currently, the storm is tracking towards New Orleans nevertheless, there are hurricane warnings along 280 miles of the Gulf Coast coastline.
