Hurricane Katrina heads for New Orleans

Monday, August 29, 2005

GRAND ISLE, LA - 7:16am on what should have been a quiet beginning to another work week ...

But today is not any quiet ordinary Monday morning on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina, a very powerful Category 4 hurricane, with winds in excess of 150 miles per hour, has just touched down on land, just east of Grand Isle, Louisiana, and heads towards New Orleans.

Hurricane Katrina, still packing very devastaing winds and rain, was downgraded from a category 5 hurricane just before daybreak, even though only a mere 5 miles per hour separate this girl from a category 5 hurricane.

Louisiana and Mississippi governors have already called a State of Emergency late last night, as mass evacuations had bugun as early as lunch yesterday. All the highways leading out of New Orleans going North, West, and even East, were gridlocked as people shuttered their homes, grabbed what belongings they could, and headed for higher grounds out of the imminent danger of Hurricane Katrina.

A hurricane of this magnitude has only ever touched land 3 times in recorded history; the unnamed Labour Day hurricane in 1935, Hurricane Camille in 1969, and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Early estimates of the damage that Hurricane Katrina may cause, are as high as 28 billion dollars.

All we can do now is ride it out!