New Orleans may see six to 12 inches of rain, and is gearing up to be one of the worse blows to hit the city since Katrina. Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore reports.
By NBC News staff and wire reports
Tropical storm Isaac was on the verge of becoming a hurricane as it approached the Gulf Coast early Tuesday morning, forecasters warned.?
Its swirling winds and rain will be a major test of the region's new flood control systems seven years after Hurricane Katrina sent walls of water crashing inland.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said at 5 a.m. ET on Tuesday that Isaac was still a tropical storm but was likely to become a hurricane during the day as it gains strength over the Gulf of Mexico.
The center of the storm was located about 125 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and had top sustained winds of 70 mph, the Hurricane Center said.?
Isaac was expected to make landfall over southeastern Louisiana either late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
Follow Isaac's path with our storm tracker
It was moving to the northwest at 12 mph and?appeared to be taking direct aim at New Orleans, which would be a cruel blow for a city still struggling to recover from Katrina which swept across the city on Aug. 29, 2005, killing more than 1,800 people and causing billions of dollars of damage.?
NOAA via EPA
A satellite image shows Tropical Storm Isaac in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday.
Unprotected, low-lying areas outside New Orleans were evacuated Monday.
From weather.com: Live updates and analysis
"All preparations to protect life and property should be completed tonight," said Ed Rappaport of the National Hurricane Center in his?8 p.m. ET Monday update. He emphasized that water from rain and storm surge would be the biggest threat -- 6 to 18 inches of rain were expected.
Isaac is expected to be the first major test of a $14 billion makeover of the system that failed the city so disastrously in 2005. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
Isaac has killed at least 22 people and caused significant flooding and damage in Haiti and the Dominican Republic before skirting the southern tip of Florida on Sunday.
Storm surge fears
The storm was forecast to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, with top winds of 90 miles per hour.
While that would be well below the intensity of Katrina, a powerful Category 3 storm, the vast size of Isaac's slow-moving system has forecasters predicting widespread flooding.?
"Even if it is a tropical storm at landfall, the large size of it will still generate significant storm surge," Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb told reporters on Monday. "That is life-threatening potentially."?
Residents in coastal communities from Louisiana to Mississippi stocked up on food and water and tried to secure their homes, cars and boats.?
Chris Graythen / Getty Images
New Orleans' Bourbon street remains virtually empty on Monday ahead of Isaac's landfall.
In New Orleans, a bumper-to-bumper stream of vehicles left the city on a highway toward Baton Rouge in search of higher ground. Others prepared, or were forced, to ride the storm out.
South hopes for drought relief from Isaac
"Our flights were canceled so we're going to be here," said Karen Foley, a 23-year-old tourist who had planned to travel home to New Jersey with a friend. "We are just hoping the city doesn't get hit again. It doesn't deserve it," she said.
Alan Diaz / AP
Tropical Storm Isaac drenches multiple countries as it moves toward Louisiana.
Along Canal Street in New Orleans' historic French Quarter, crews were boarding up the windows of some stores and businesses.?
"I'm not all that concerned about the storm. It's still a Category 1," said Charles Neeley, a 69-year-old contractor overseeing workers covering the windows of a CVS drugstore.?"We usually ride out ones and twos, and get the hell out for threes and fours."
Nonetheless, Neeley said he'd taken care to stock up on food and water at home and fuel his generator.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.?
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