0630CST Nov 9th - New Orleans: I'm in New Orleans working on a hazard mitigation project and watching "Hurricane" Ida. It looks like Ida is being heavily impacyed by shear. As it moves north, she'll also enter cooler waters. As of the 7am NHC update, Ida had 80MPH winds and that may have been generous.

As Ida shifts east and north, New Orleans will be on the weak side of the storm. Some possibility of tropical force winds exists for the city but this is expected to be a rain event. 3 to 5 inches of rain are expected here in the next 18 hours or so. This should be easily handled by the city's drainage system. Some flooding and storm surge is still expected on the coast and in areas outside of the hurricane protection zones.  So, I'll be wet and windy later today and tonite but actual impact is expected to be minimal.

More later.