New Orleans braces for storm on Katrina anniversary

Sara Reardon, reporter

It's d?j? vu all over again for New Orleans. Weather forecasters are now predicting that tropical storm Isaac, currently brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, will grow to hurricane force and hit the city on the 7-year anniversary of hurricane Katrina.?

Worrying as that sounds, Katrina was worse. It brewed into a category 5 storm in the Gulf of Mexico, and hit land as a category 3, with winds reaching 225 kilometres per hour. In New Orleans, the storm surge was some 8.5 metres.

Coastal defences have also improved since Katrina. The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has made $14.5 billion worth of improvements?to strengthen coastal defences, such as raising and reinforcing walls, and replacing mud levees with ones made of strong clay. They've already withstood one important test: in 2008, winds reached around 170 kilometres per hour when hurricane Gustav hit land, but flooding was minimal in most areas.?Louisiana, along with Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama, has declared a state of emergency today, although no one is being forced to evacuate yet. The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which regulates offshore drilling, reports that over half of the oil platforms and drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, have been evacuated and shut down to prevent spills.?

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/22cbfcb6/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C0A80Cnew0Eorleans0Ebraces0Efor0Ehurrica0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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