Isaac menaces U.S. Gulf Coast 7 years after Katrina

NEW ORLEANS,  (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Isaac closed in on the U.S. Gulf coast yesterday, triggering evacuation orders in some areas and disrupting offshore oil production as it threatened to make landfall between Florida and Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane.

The wide, slow-moving storm swiped south Florida on Sunday and strengthened over the warm Gulf waters. It was expected to reach land late on Tuesday or early Wednesday, the anniversary of devastating Hurricane Katrina seven years ago.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned the storm could buffet towns and cities in at least three U.S. states near the shoreline and flood the northern Gulf coast with a storm surge of up to 12 feet (3.6 metres) in some areas.

“The weather will start going downhill overnight tonight on the northern Gulf Coast,” Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb told reporters. “Wherever it is people are going to be during the storm, they need to get there tonight.”

Isaac was forecast to strengthen into a Category 2 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, with top winds of 100 mph (160 kph), before making landfall and moving over the Gulf Coast.

The storm could take direct aim at New Orleans, which is still struggling to fully recover from Katrina, which swept across the city on Aug. 29, 2005, killing more than 1,800 people and causing billions of dollars of damage along the coast.

“That brings a high level of anxiety to the people of New Orleans,” said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “I want to tell everybody now that I believe that we will be OK.”

At 8 p.m. EDT (2400 GMT), Isaac was centered 230 miles (370 km) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River with top sustained winds of 70 miles per hour (110 kph) — a speed that places the storm very near hurricane status — and swirling northwest at 10 mph (17 kph).