[lit-ideas] New Orleans... gone tomorrow?

The mayor of New Orleans ordered a mandatory evacuation order amid fears that the hurricane could cause massive flooding in New Orleans, a city of 485,000 people that lies below sea level.

He said the hurricane's storm surge was likely to overwhelm the levees that protect the city.

"The city of New Orleans has never seen a hurricane of this magnitude hit it directly," Nagin said.

Calling Katrina a "once-in-a-lifetime event," he said, "We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared."

The National Weather Service this morning declared Katrina "a potentially catastrophic" hurricane after it strengthened to a Category 5 storm in the Gulf. The storm sliced across the southern tip of Florida from the Atlantic before heading westward into the Gulf, where it was fueled by the warm Gulf waters and turned to the north.

Regarding New Orleans specifically, the weather service said it expected a "direct strike" by Katrina with "potentially catastrophic and life-threatening" consequences. It urged people to "rush protective measures to completion and leave the area now!"

Local meteorologists predict that Katrina will make landfall at around 7 a.m. Monday morning and that it will likely run smack into New Orleans. 

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