About 7am after 2 hours of constant weather updates, started getting some e-mails and blogs of levee breaches. Took some time for our crews to get to the Industrial canal and to confirm we took the video live and sure enough water was literally pouring into the lower 9th ward, Aribi and Chalmette. Then it seems like levees have been failing all over especially in areas South and west of New Orleans near the coast, areas not previously affect by Katrina. If that was not bad enough we have as of last count 27 Tornado warnings since 7:30 am this morning.
On a short break right now before the 9pm-5am shift! Wall to wall Rita coverage. It?s been raining very heavily here but the winds haven?t been too bad. Coverage is going well, but again local, state and federal officials seem to now less about what is going then we do. We had to show the video of the levee breach to convince the state OEP that it was actually happening. Good news is every one left and most areas flooding were already flooded from Katrina.
Once again the staff here has been stellar and amazing! The viewers here have been awesome too?they sure do appreciate all the hard work WWL has been doing. Their constant appreciation keeps you going strong. Brad

Intensity clearly as stated before she would weakened before landfall most likely 115 mph. Still looking at Cameron, La for landfall.

What may be causing the wobbles where ever the strongest convection in the inner core remains will tug the storm right or left slightly.

Surge still a problem due to the amount of water already pushed toward the coast, as evident from the flooding in SELA already.

Brad