Tropical storm threatens to hit New Orleans on Katrina anniversary
A tropical storm heading towards New Orleans is expected to make landfall later today, packing winds of up to 100 miles an hour.
All flights to and from New Orleans airport have been cancelled, but the city has not been evacuated.
Hundreds of flights have also been cancelled at airports across southern Florida, including at Miami and Fort Lauderdale, as storm Isaac sweeps across the region bringing heavy rain and gale-force winds.
It is feared the storm will slam into New Orleans tomorrow, on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which brought death and destruction to the city. More than 1,800 people died and the city is still trying to recover from the flood damage caused.
However, Isaac is not yet as powerful as Katrina, although it is projected to have grown into at least a category one hurricane by the time it hits land, somewhere in southeastern Louisiana later today.
It has already left a trail of destruction in the Caribbean, where it hit Haiti and the Dominican Republic, killing at least 22 people, before it skirted the southern tip of Florida on Sunday.
Flood warnings are in place in three Gulf Coast states and Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi are in a state of emergency, but on Monday New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu said: "There is nothing this storm will bring us that we are not capable of handling."
Nearly $10bn has been spent shoring up the city’s flood defences since Hurricane Katrina.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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