As Isaac steamed toward Louisiana on Tuesday, the storm maintained strength just shy of tropical storm status, but it also remained a massive storm with no shortage of flooding potential in its path.
Forecasters predicted Isaac could intensify into a Category 2 hurricane, with winds of about 100 mph, by early Wednesday around the time it’s expected to make landfall. The current forecast track has the storm aimed at New Orleans, but hurricane warnings extended across 280 miles from Morgan City, La., to the Florida-Alabama state line. It could become the first hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast since 2008.
Early Tuesday, Isaac was a large and potent tropical storm packing top sustained winds of 70 mph. The storm system was centered about 80 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River at 11 a.m. EDT and moving northwest at 10 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Read More