It’s been almost a year since I predicted a major quake would hit California soon. So far, there have been a lot of piddley little tremors – quakes that would be news in Houston, but ignored in LA – but nothing that could be called major.
Today, it looks like New Orleans will get another hurricane before California gets an earthquake.
Residents in unprotected, low-lying areas outside New Orleans were evacuating Monday as Tropical Storm Isaac threatened to strengthen into a hurricane that could make landfall in or near Louisiana almost seven years to the day that Hurricane Katrina struck.
It's "trying to form an eye-like feature" but it's "still a little bit shy of hurricane status," National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb said in a morning update.
At 65 mph, Isaac was just nine miles short of hurricane status and that should happen within the next 24 hours, Knabb added.
The governors of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi declared states of emergency as a hurricane warning went into effect for a roughly 300-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast in four states from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.
"Tonight is when the conditions will start to go downhill" ahead of landfall Tuesday night, Knabb said.
The National Hurricane Center was no longer forecasting a Category 2 hurricane on landfall, but instead a weaker Category 1. Still, Isaac will probably move slowly inland, possibly dumping as much as 18 inches of rain in places, Knabb said.
"That's going to be the big problem," NBC meteorologist Al Roker said on TODAY. "We're talking about potentially 24 hours of hurricane force winds and heavy rain."
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