Tropical Storm Isaac was poised to pummel New Orleans tomorrow — the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina — and threatened to lay waste to Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and parts of Florida as a full-blown hurricane.
Isaac, a large, slow-moving storm, was eerily copying Katrina’s path through the Gulf after killing at least 24 people in the Caribbean.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered in parts of Louisiana and Alabama, and 1,500 National Guardsmen were mobilized in Mississippi.
The National Hurricane Center warned of a potentially deadly 12-foot storm surge.
“This is not a New Orleans storm. This is a Gulf Coast storm,” warned Craig Fugate, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator.
Forecasters expect Isaac to intensify into a Category 2 hurricane, with winds of about 100 mph by early tomorrow, when it’s expected to make landfall.
Katrina came ashore as a Category 3 storm with winds of 125 mph and grew to a monster category 5 with winds over 170 mph. It killed more than 1,800 people.
“I want to tell everybody now that I believe that we will be OK,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said.
Nevertheless, officials warned residents in Isaac’s path to prepare for the worst.
“Wherever it is people are going to be during the storm, they need to get there tonight,” NHC director Rick Knabb said yesterday.
Isaac could deal a more far-reaching blow to the economy. Federal officials said 78 percent of the oil production in the Gulf — about 1 million barrels a day — has been halted after companies evacuated 346 offshore oil- and gas- production platforms.
That’s 17 percent of daily US oil production and could mean a hike of at least 10 cents a gallon at the pump, analysts said.
Also yesterday, United, Continental and Southwest Airlines canceled flights into New Orleans. The ports of Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans were closed, and all barge traffic along southern portions of the Mississippi River were suspended.
Officials said the greatest danger could be flooding that happens well after Isaac passes.
The storm’s projected 18 inches of rain would have been welcome earlier in this drought-ravaged year — but not anymore.
Said Alabama farmer Bert Driskell, “We don’t need a lot of water this close to harvest.”