[RightWhale]

What chances it'll even be left standing with winds as high as their predicting?

There will be some damage, but this is not a tornado. The hurricane could spawn tornados, and that would be very dangerous if one heads for the stadium.

[filbert]

Actually at the eyewall right now the hurricane is the equivalent of an F3 tornado.

[maquiladora]

There will be some damage, but this is not a tornado.

Actually, the current sustained wind speeds are exaxtly the same as the wind speeds in an F3 tornado.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I read somewhere else that Katrina is basically a huge F3 tornado in a way. And when I looked at the category scale, an F3 is 158-206 mph - which is what the storm winds near the eye wall are, and the characteristic damage (just from the winds) for a F3 is: Roof and some walls torn off well constructed houses; trains overturned; most trees in forest uprooted.

Something to think about as the storm comes in.

[NautiNurse]

There will be some damage, but this is not a tornado.

Quite the contrary--this is akin to a 200 mile wide tornado that pounds 165 mph sustained winds for 2-3 hours, rather than plowing through a narrow area in seconds.