12:30 PM | Isaac continues to maintain hurricane status and is moving at a painful pace; more than 9 inches of rainfall has already been reported near New Orleans, LA

Discussion

Isaac continues to spin only very slowly to the NW at 5 mph and it has had very little weakening over the last several hours. The latest measurements indicate sustained winds are still at hurricane status levels at 75 mph and the central pressure has only risen 2 millibars since early this morning. As a result, SE Louisiana, southern Mississippi and southwest Alabama continue to get pounded by wind and rain and will so for several more hours. Flooding is a major concern throughout this region given the slow movement of Isaac and more than 9 inches have already been reported at Lakefront Airport in New Orleans. Winds have gusted as high as 72 mph in New Orleans and to 110+ mph in a few nearby locations with nearly 500,000 already without power. Longer term, the remains of Isaac still appear to be headed first to the north towards Arkansas and Missouri and then to the east towards the east coast. In fact, the remains of Isaac could very well interact with a frontal system to produce some rainfall in the Mid-Atlantic by the latter part of the Labor Day weekend. By the way, today happens to be the 7th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which attained category 5 status over the Gulf of Mexico before weakening to a category 3 hurricane as it approached the New Orleans metro region on 8/29/2005.