My sisiter-in law lives in Lafayette- about 150 miles directly west of NO. She is not the least bit worried. Says they will get a little rain and that's it. she's planning to be at work in the morning. Does this sound right? Will there be no devestation to the west at all?
The west side WILL get damage. It IS a Cat 5, after all. But, yes, the damage on the west side will be much less than the east.
This is a huge storm, and I've never been through one like it, of course, but you'd be surprised at how little the area west of the west edge of a tropical storm or average hurricane is affected.
The west side of the storm is called the dry side because so much of the rain has already fallen by the time the rotation gets there, but in a storm this strong I would think that the dry side would just be the 'less wet' side.