[Founding Father]

New Orleans is exactly at 90.0 longitude?

Yes, that's what is confusing me; everyone is predicting a slight eastward movement as the eye approaches shore, so it would seem the eye would need to hit around 90.5 before drifting back. I think if 90.0 is as far west as it goes, the eye hits east of N.O. The bad news is that the dry air over Texas is being pushed back by Katrina, which means the eye will continue NNW.

[AntiGuv]

There seems to be a bit of confusion here, though I'm not entirely sure (it's hard to keep up with these huge threads). The worst-case scenario for New Orleans is for the eye to pass to the east, not to the west (as is ordinarily the case in hurricanes). This is because a hurricane passing to the east will push Lake Ponchetrain (sp?) into the city, whereas a hurricane to the west won't (but it'll still be a mess, just not an apocalyptic mess).