Here are some New Orleans webcams

[whathuh]

First off - I hope that any Lurker residents of New Orleans have fled the city and taken up friendly shelter.  By all accounts hurricane Katrina is set to become the worst natural disaster to ever hit the US.  It's as powerful as Camille, but much larger.  170+ mph sustained winds and an estimated 28' stormsurge will wreak havok on a city that is below sea level and only has 18' levies to protect it.

Also, the people who didn't have the means to flee New Orleans are being packed into the Superdome for safe shelter.  The problem with this is that no one has any idea if the Superdome will survive this storm.  It's definitely the best bet, but I don't believe that the Superdome is tested beyond 130 mph winds, and that was just scale model tests in a wind tunnel.  Correct me if I'm wrong here.

Here are some webcams.

http://www.nola.com/bourbocam/

The bridgecam, rivercam, and quartercam are all worth watching.
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I heard today that this was one of the very few category 5 hurricanes actually to hit land at category 5. I may be optimistic about this, but I don't think it will do all that much damage as it is hyped up to. I think it will just be a straight shot through the southeast, and out NC/VA/DC. As long as it doesn't pull an Andrew or like that one that hit Florida recently, stayed on top of Florida for a day or two, then looped around back onto Florida, and disappeared, the damage of Katrina will be much smaller.

I also wonder if this will stay a hurricane the whole way through land like Isaac's Storm did in 1900. From what I remember, it hit Galveston, and went through Chicago, and left through New York City, still at hurricane force winds. Now that's a hurricane...