But during the ERC, winds diminish and the overall intensity does drop, at least temporarily.
There's been some hope today that Katrina would be undergoing and ERC before striking New Orleans. That hope appears to be a slim one at this time because the hurricane has achieved that supercyclone status which is characterized by the stadium effect eye.
This is truly the doomsday scenario for New Orleans. You can't make it worse unless you throw a meteor strike in the middle of it.
And I'm not really attempting humor there. I have little to no hope that the city will be habitable for the rest of this year.
It is my worry that it will not undergo an ERC either. This may already be an annular hurricane and will stay at this strength or grow before landfall.
People on the Easternwx boards are saying...."north turn" and that it will miss NO.
Well, the reality is, it actually is tracking slightly to the WEST of the forecast track.
It will go in between NO and Gulfport, but probably closer to NO.
We will not see the ultimate disaster we could have seen if it went right over the city, but the thing is, with a cat 5 with a huge eye and large area of cat 4 and 5 winds, the ANGLE OF APPROACH MATTERS NIL.
Hundreds will still probably die and the city will still probably flood really bad.