After FOX completely botched their London reports the other night (re: train station evacuations, misidentifying locations of their "live" reporters, etc.), I am even more skeptical of their incessant "alerts".
Nonetheless, if NO is seriously affected, at least *somebody* was calling attention to it.
There's nothing to stop it from strengthening until landfall other than an eyewall replacement cycle, and that's not going to happen until it's as strong as it can get, by which time it will be over land.
On thread #2 or #3 we were joking on Bastardi. He has been yelling about New Orleans for days, even when it seemed ridiculous to do so. So, that's what I was chuckling about.